Recently hired Dalton Police Department officer Daniel Harrison Tolbert, 32, was arrested shortly after 5 p.m. Thursday on child molestation charges. His bond was set at $30,000.
The city will immediately begin the process of firing Tolbert, Police Chief Jason Parker said in a statement.
"I am very disappointed to hear about this allegation, and upset about the discredit this will surely bring on our department, and officers," Parker said. "We would never condone or support the kind of behavior that would warrant this charge. ... The men and women of this department hold ourselves to a very high standard of behavior, and we know the community we serve expects our behavior to be beyond reproach."
The statement said Tolbert, 32, was a trainee who was never unsupervised or left alone while on duty as a Dalton officer. Probationary trainees ride with an experienced training officer for at least four months after completing the police academy. Tolbert had served three months as a Dalton officer.
Tolbert joined the department in September after graduating from the Regional Police Academy in Athens, Ga., according to the Dalton Police Department.
A native of Fayetteville, Ga., Tolbert graduated from Lovejoy High School, then earned a bachelor's degree in political science from Fort Valley State University and a master's degree in criminal justice from Georgia College and State University, according to information release by the Dalton department.
He previously worked for the U.S. Border Patrol in California, as well as being a jail deputy in the Clayton County Sheriff's Office, and served in the U.S. Army from 2006 to 2008, the police department said.
The Dalton Police Department said it placed Tolbert on administrative leave nine days ago, immediately after being informed by the Whitfield County Sheriff's Office and Georgia Bureau of Investigation that he was being investigated on suspicion of child molestation.
The department declined to release any details about the allegations themselves.