Being named Outstanding Chief of the Year on Tuesday by the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police is the crowing achievement of Marietta Police Chief Dan Flynn’s 37-year law enforcement career. Flynn, 59, was honored at a ceremony in Savannah for his service in Marietta and at the Savannah-Chatham Metropolitan Police Department.

The association praised Flynn's local work for improving officer safety through the use of Tasers and increasing officers' access to information through computer databases. He was also recognized for an electronic "In the Loop" newsletter he distributes.

However, Flynn says his most important personal achievement came nearly two decades ago as a captain in the Miami-Dade Police Department, where he first became a police officer in 1973. As a 21-year-old rookie who previously painted houses while taking community college courses, the Long Island, N.Y., native was assigned to Miami's infamous Liberty City neighborhood, which had a violent reputation.

Liberty City was and remains a largely poor area west of Miami's Little Haiti neighborhood.

For Flynn - who was raised the youngest of four children in a suburban Irish-American family - it was a culture shock and admittedly a little intimidating. But once on the job, he said he enjoyed working with community leaders to solve crimes. Soon he found himself thriving in his new profession.

"I didn't have anyone to help me. They put me right out in what was the roughest area: Liberty City, central district," remembered Flynn, as he leaned back in his leather office chair Thursday afternoon. "It was a culture that I had not grown up in, but people are people - poor people or black, white, Hispanic people."

As a captain, Flynn had been in charge of implementing a countywide narcotics program. He said his success in reducing crime and getting drugs off the streets ultimately led to his promotion in the early 1990s to Miami-Dade's narcotics bureau commander.

A year-and-a-half later, Liberty City civic and church leaders requested that the county commission and public safety director promote Flynn to major in order to preside over the neighborhood's district.

"These people were African-American and the existing major was African-American, and they wanted me back by popular demand," Flynn recalled. "To me it was the most gratifying thing that happened to me. To know that you're getting it right and appreciated by people."

Marietta Councilman Anthony Coleman, who has represented the diverse Ward 5 since 2002, said he has been impressed with Flynn's performance as police chief.

"He reached out to the Cobb NAACP, SCLC and local business people in the community to build a relationship and build bridges with the community. He was very concerned with building community-police relations," said Coleman, public safety committee chairman. "I think he has done an outstanding job."

Flynn said the lessons learned from working with people of various backgrounds as a young officer have influenced him throughout his career.

After rising to the rank of major, Flynn left the Miami-Dade Police Department in 2000. He then served as chief of the Savannah-Chatham Police Department. There, he oversaw consolidation of the city and county's police departments and assisted in providing security at the 2004 G8 Summit of foreign leaders, before retiring in December 2005.

In January 2007, Flynn began serving as Marietta's police chief after the Marietta City Council unanimously confirmed him in December 2006. The department has 140 officers.

Overall, the reported number of violent and major crimes in the city of Marietta has decreased from 3,372 in 2006, before Flynn became chief, to 3,027 in 2009, according to data from the Marietta Police Department.

Seven crime categories - murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny and auto theft - have seen an overall 10.2-percent decline since Flynn was sworn into office.

The veteran law enforcement officer attributes the reduction in crime to a number of initiatives he has implemented. They include a crime-free housing program that screens apartment complex tenants; conducting traffic check points; adding new police equipment such as the Skywatch surveillance system and motorized T-3 patrol vehicles; and documenting officers' field interviews to a department-wide database to assist in solving related crimes.

"These are not my original inventions, just police techniques and strategies designed to address problems in Marietta," Flynn said.

Flynn said he traveled to the awards ceremony with others from the department without knowing they had nominated him for Police Chief of the Year. He said he is still recovering from the surprise of hearing his name called as the award recipient.

"It's an honor for me beyond words," Flynn said.