ATLANTA — Gov. Brian Kemp’s workplace says there isn’t a time stamp on an unprecedented intervention of state police within the Metropolis of Atlanta. The usage of state troopers and DNR and GBI brokers in Atlanta has been extensively reported however few folks admire the depth of this extraordinary dedication of state sources in a single metropolis.
The governor has licensed almost $6 million for this crime suppression effort which has rolled into Atlanta nearly each week since early April of final yr. The particular staff has made almost 20,000 automobile stops and arrested than 350 individuals who have been already needed on prison expenses.
Channel 2 investigative reporter Richard Belcher discovered this type of road policing by state officers is seemingly a primary in Georgia legislation enforcement.
Former Georgia Legal professional Normal Mike Bowers agrees.
“By no means earlier than have I seen this,” he instructed Belcher.
Bowers says public security is the highest precedence within the Georgia structure. In his view, native crime is legitimately a state problem.
“All the opposite issues are essential: schooling, caring for the poor, however conserving folks protected and safe of their properties and of their property and of their particular person, that’s the very first thing the federal government’s received to do,” Bowers mentioned.
He notes that the structure mentions public security in its second paragraph.
A overview of Georgia State Patrol data obtained by means of the Georgia Open Information Act present that a mean of 42 state officers labored the streets of Atlanta over 35 weekends between April 9, 2021, and January 9, 2022.
The GSP says the state officers often work different areas in metro Atlanta, however they’re assigned virtually solely inside the Atlanta metropolis limits.
On three weekends in late June and July of final yr, the state contingent totaled between 75 and 90 officers — on high of what APD placed on the streets.
The outcomes embrace greater than 18,000 automobiles stopped; DUI arrests; the arrests of 23 homicide suspects; and the seizure of stolen automobiles price about $5.5 million.
Bowers instructed Channel 2 Motion Information that the governor’s extraordinary intervention is first about public security, but it surely’s additionally good politics.
“Each morning on the information, all I hear is about shootings and cops getting shot and that kind of factor, and individuals are sick and uninterested in that,” he mentioned.
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The governor ordered the state intervention whereas Keisha Lance Bottoms occupied the mayor’s workplace in metropolis corridor. She and Kemp had a famously unhealthy relationship, together with variations over policing the streets and masks mandates through the early phases of the general public well being disaster.
Belcher requested the governor’s workplace whether or not the intervention “…is an announcement of the governor’s insecurity within the political and police management in Atlanta?”
Kemp’s spokeswoman ducked any criticism of the town, saying “that is in response to an increase in violent crime and different illegal exercise. Retaining Georgians protected is his (Kemp’s) high precedence. We admire Chief Bryant and the Atlanta Police Division for welcoming our staff and being an lively companion…”
Requested by Belcher if he believes the state police dedication is an effort to ship a sign that the state doesn’t belief Atlanta’s management, Mayor Dickens mentioned, “No, I’m truly at all times welcoming a partnership. So Atlanta welcomes the Georgia State Patrol to have the ability to are available and assist us on the weekends. So long as we now have troubles on the streets, I welcome the assist.”
Bowers agrees.
“It goes on as we now have the circumstances that we now have had in Atlanta. Ever how lengthy it’s, the assist from the state with extra legislation enforcement must be there.”
The governor’s workplace instructed Belcher the governor has licensed about $5.6 million for the particular particulars in Atlanta. The GSP says it has spent about $1.6 million on additional time and aviation prices for state plane. That leaves one other $4 million for this system.
The governor’s workplace instructed us is “there isn’t a time stamp.”
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