Atlanta Police Detective Ronald Sluss faces a theft-by-shoplifting charge in Cherokee County after deputies investigated an alleged unpaid beer purchase at a Canton Publix. The criminal case and the department’s internal review are separate processes; neither the charge nor the review establishes an outcome.
A charge and a separate department review
The reported incident occurred September 16 at the Publix on Hickory Flat Highway. Store employees reported that a man left without paying for a 12-pack of SweetWater IPA valued at $18.99, and store security footage captured the incident, WSB-TV reported. Deputies later identified the vehicle involved as an Atlanta police undercover truck, and Atlanta police supervisors identified Sluss from a photo, according to the station.
Cherokee County deputies obtained a warrant charging Sluss with theft by shoplifting, FOX 5 Atlanta reported. The charge is an allegation, not a finding of guilt. The Atlanta Police Department relieved Sluss of duty and placed him in non-enforcement status pending an internal investigation, the station reported.
Two oversight processes, with different roles
APD says its Office of Professional Standards investigates allegations of employee misconduct and imposes discipline for sustained work-rule or city-ordinance violations. That department process is distinct from the county criminal case, and the agency’s general policy does not determine the result of Sluss’s review, APD’s policy page says.
There is also a statewide certification mechanism: the Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training Council says it has discretionary authority to sanction an officer’s certification when a preponderance of evidence shows a violation of the POST Act. The council’s stated authority does not establish that it has taken or will take action in Sluss’s case, Georgia POST says.
A separate Georgia case illustrates the limits of comparison
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation announced in August 2023 that Mercedes Clark, then a Talbot County sheriff’s deputy and formerly a Meriwether County deputy, had been arrested and charged with theft by deception and other offenses. The GBI described allegations involving falsified timesheets and official-vehicle reports; its announcement did not give a final case outcome. That separate matter involved alleged official-record falsification, not an alleged retail theft, and does not indicate what will happen in Sluss’s case, the GBI said.
The outcome of Sluss’s criminal case and APD’s internal investigation remains unclear.
