Sunday, May 31, 2009
Opinion, Politics, Atlanta

Speaking truth to power

The other things an Atlanta Police sergeant told City Hall

Detective Richard Williams (outside with black jacket on), Det. Bob Buffington (left) with Sgt. Ryan Phinney.
Stephanie Ramage

By Stephanie Ramage

By the time you read this, I will be out of the country on vacation, but I am leaving with a heavy heart. The story I worked on about the way Mayor Shirley Franklin’s administration has treated disabled officers, “Badges, Bullets, and Broken Promises,” which The Sunday Paper published on May 17, has haunted me.

Fortunately, officers, disabled and working, have had a champion in Atlanta Police Sgt. Scott Kreher, president of the local chapter of the International Brotherhood of Police Officers (IBPO). It was on their behalf that he lost his temper on May 20 and let slip a phrase about a baseball bat that at this point doesn’t even bear repeating.

He said a lot of other things that day, too, and since no one has reported them, I’ve decided to publish his talking points here.

Pay issues

Fact: Most of our officers have lost at least 40 percent in pay since 2002, while Richard Pennington remains one of the highest-paid police chiefs in the country. This will be the third consecutive year our officers have seen their take-home pay reduced. Mayor Franklin said she would raise our officers’ pay by 40 percent and have 2,000 officers by 2007.

Fact: The city continues to hire lateral officers at higher pay than our officers who have served the same or more time for our city.

Fact: The city has never paid officers overtime for attending court off-duty, as done in comparable cities.

Fact: The city has discontinued the tuition reimbursement program at Georgia State University.

Fact: It has been more than seven years since both the Linder Report and the Bain Report recommended that the APD institute a career ladder, and we still don’t have one.

Fact: No city we have been compared to by the Franklin Administration has furloughed officers or suspended step raises since 2002.

Fact: The Franklin Administration states that the proposed budget gets our officers back to full duty with a $56 million dollar tax increase. According to COO Greg Giornelli, the total saved by furloughing our officers was $6 million. Yet there is no money in the proposed tax increase to fund any additional officers or equipment.

Fact: Due to the manpower shortages caused by the Franklin Administration, Fair Labor Standard Act laws are still being violated even though the city just settled a $7.5 million lawsuit. Interestingly enough, the police furlough started in December 2008, one month after the city paid the settlement.

Officer Strength

Fact: The 2009/10 budget calls for a reduction of 69 sworn police positions. Why is the administration cutting positions [after Franklin claimed she would increase the force by 200 officers by the end of 2009 and then chastised the union for being skeptical of her claim]?

Fact: Mayor Franklin’s 2009/10 budget proposal asked for a 3-millage- point tax increase. In her open letter to the union dated Jan. 14, 2009, she asked us to support a tax increase to hire 200 more officers. Where are the officers in this budget?

Fact: We only have one academy class of 28 due out in June, and 32 waiting for a class to start. Even if they start this week, they won’t be on the streets until the end of 2009.

Fact: According to Pennington’s command staff presentation on May 5, 2009, we have 125 officers eligible for retirement in the next 18 months.
 
Fact: The Drug Enforcement Administration has proclaimed Atlanta to be the “hub” of narcotics trafficking in the Southeast, and the Linder Report said more than 75 percent of Atlanta’s homicides were drug-related. Yet we still have less than 30 narcotic investigators. Chief Pennington said we needed at least 100. Yet on May 5, 2009, when asked about it by Council members, he said we had enough detectives. Which is it?
 
Fact: According to the command staff, there are 1,668 current filled positions. This includes 60 police recruits and 133 officers assigned to the airport, who do not handle 911 calls. If we repeat last year’s attrition of 170 officers, we are left with 1,498, or 1,365 handling 911 calls. Even with the 200 positions requested from the COPS [Community Oriented Policing Services] grant [if the city lands the grant], we still see a decrease in police officers.

Fact: Each zone throughout the city runs daily without beats covered by a beat officer. This severely hampers our officers’ ability to proactively patrol each neighborhood [and] allow for community policing activities, and creates an officer safety issue by forcing our officers to wait longer for backup.

Fact: Neither the Franklin Administration nor the Atlanta Police command staff has a long-term strategic plan for the police department’s manpower shortages.

IBPO Recommendations

Use any proposed tax increase dollars to fully fund all the past steps our current officers have lost since 2002, the career ladder, [and] tuition reimbursement, and to stop current proposed insurance co-pay and pension contribution increases. This can be used to rehire former APD officers who have left since 2002 and attract and retain current officers. Without this, the city will never reach the goal of a fully staffed police department.

Lobby the state capital to pass legislation to force a percentage of tax revenue to be earmarked solely for police and fire, as we do for schools.

Before confirming any appointment by the mayor’s office for chief of police, hold confirmation hearings that include IBPO personnel.

Explore an expanded detail by APD in October or November of each calendar year to inspect city business and alcohol licenses to ensure fines and fees are collected.

Pass legislation similar to the “foot beat” ordinance that requires every beat car to be filled before any other units in the zones are manned.

Request a pro bono study for the feasibility of the APD running all towing services for itself as a revenue stream. SP