Georgia Town Struggles to Keep its Force
by Brenden Sager, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Grantville’s town elders freqently gather on Main Street’s benches in the afternoon to talk about city business. These days, the talk is about the Police Department.
The six-man department is looking for its third police chief in two years. The last chief quit in August. His predecessor was fired. In April, state officials disclosed they want to take the badge of a patrolman who didn’t disclose his arrest record. There is talk again of letting the Coweta County sheriff take over policing Grantville --- talk that has swirled among city and county officials for a decade. The locals don’t like the idea.
“As far as I know, (the Grantville police) do a good job,” said lifelong resident Luther East, 68, while sitting on the stoop of Mr. C’s Mini-Mart. “We don’t need no damned county officers.”
About 85 percent of Georgia’s police forces employ no more than 10 officers, according to a state-sponsored survey. Managing a department can be a huge challenge. The costs of police equipment, training and insurance have increased dramatically, said Frank Rotondo, executive director of the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police and a former chief in the small town of Helen.
In recent years, several metro area departments have faced elimination --- and escaped it. In the late 1980s, then-City Councilman Butch Conway tried to eliminate the Lawrenceville Police Department.
“The main problem was the city was not financially supporting the Police Department,” recalled Conway, now the sheriff of Gwinnett County. “But people thought I was anti-law enforcement.”
Fellow council members’ votes supporting elimination evaporated in the face of voters’ opposition, Conway said. The situation turned out positively for him, however. Conway was later named Lawrenceville’s chief and gathered political and financial support to turn around the force. “They went from worst to best,” Conway said. “Lawrenceville is now the best-equipped police department in the state.”
One small department, Auburn in Barrow County, is a cautionary tale for politicians tempted to turn over their police headaches to someone else. The Auburn City Council disbanded the Police Department in 1997, amid funding complaints and alleged mismanagement.
Within two years, residents recalled the mayor, re-established the department and changed the city’s charter to ensure police protection.
“Now it’s mandatory that we have a police department,” said Auburn council member Charlie Sewell.
And now, Auburn residents are paying for it. Sewell said costs for the department over the last five years have increased more than three-fold, from $ 363,000 to $ 1.3 million. The city is raising taxes this year --- the first year since the force returned --- partly to meet the increased costs of policing.
The funding has built a better-equipped, more professional force, which has grown from 10 to 15 officers, Sewell said.
Grantville police operate with an annual budget of $ 216,375. Starting pay is $ 10.50 an hour. One of the department’s six positions is vacant. “We desperately need that sixth man,” said acting Chief Mickey Noles. “We need more than six.”
Before Noles was named acting chief, the City Council brought in two Peachtree City officers to evaluate the department. They reported that Grantville police radios were so faulty that “in the event that an officer needs assistance, it is likely that his/her transmission would not be received by the 911 center.”
They also said the city could be open to lawsuits because there were no controls over weapons carried by officers, the officers weren’t required to pass annual weapons qualification tests and they weren’t familiar with use-of-force policies.
Upon receiving the report, the City Council fired Chief Jerry Davison and hired Derek Walston in May 2001.
In June, another officer, Jerry Rush, was accused of responding late to two 911 calls. Walston wanted to fire Rush, but the council instead voted to suspend Rush for a week. Walston quit in August after the dispute.
Separately, the Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training Council recommended in April that Rush lose his badge for not disclosing he had been arrested twice on misdemeanor charges. He was never prosecuted. Rush appealed, and the case is under review by the state attorney general’s office.
Acting Chief Noles, a former pastor at a Church of God in Alabama, stands by Rush and his department. He said he’s working on updating the department’s policies and procedures, but the Peachtree City evaluation team used benchmarks not suitable for Grantville.
“We’re a small department. . . . This is nothing like Peachtree City,” Noles said. “We’re just trying to make everybody happy. That’s a tough job. Even Jesus couldn’t make everyone happy.”