by Tim Darnell
Only hours after another deadly shooting in Atlanta, several law enforcement officials told members of the Georgia Senate Public Safety Committee Wednesday what they need to lower crime rates and reduce stress on their judicial systems.
“If you want crime to come down, you need to invest in those patrol officers working the street,” said Pete Skandalakis, executive director of the Prosecuting Attorney’s Council of Georgia. “They’re the first line of defense.
“The second step is investing in seasoned prosecutors and public defenders. We’ve been begging for resources for years. Our district attorneys and public defenders are overworked, and we’re losing good, experienced people.”
Wednesday’s committee meeting was the second of three on rising crime throughout metro Atlanta during the pandemic.
“Something’s broken. Something’s not working,” said Sen. John Albers, R-Roswell, who chairs the committee. “We need to clean up Atlanta.”
Atlanta Police Chief Rodney Bryant told the committee that crime is dropping in the city.
“Our most aggressive crime reduction plans went into effect over the summer, around Memorial Day,” Bryant said. “Our murder rate at that time was 63 percent higher than it was last year. Now, it’s at 15 percent and falling. Rapes were 108 percent higher than last year, and now they’re at 67 percent higher and declining. The only numbers that are increasing are larcenies and thefts.”
Early Wednesday morning, two people – including the suspected gunman – were killed in a shooting at a Midtown Atlanta luxury high-rise, Atlanta police told local media. The shooting happened around 3:30 am, according to Atlanta police, at Atlantic House, a 32-story high rise that’s also one of the city’s tallest residential buildings.
Atlanta Chief Operating Officer Jon Keen told the committee outgoing Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms made crime reduction a top priority this year and increased the city’s public safety budget by 15 percent. The city also has installed about 250 additional cameras throughout Atlanta, he said.
Crime in Atlanta is one of the factors behind a move to create a city of Buckhead, which would remove about 25 square miles – or about 18 percent of the city of Atlanta’s land area – and create Georgia’s 10th largest municipality. It would also include about 20 percent of the city’s population and cost the city of Atlanta more than $250 million in property, sales and lodging taxes, as well as business license revenues.
Earlier this week, several members of Atlanta’s legislative delegation held a press conference to criticize the move. State Sen. Nan Orrock denounced the idea as preposterous.
“This is the worst thing we can do for Atlanta but also for Buckhead and Georgia,” she said. “Carving up a capital city will increase political, social and civil disorder.”
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.