By Tom Opdyke
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
COBB COUNTY, Ga. — An experiment in a neighborhood on the edge of Smyrna was enough to convince Cobb County commissioners that adding armed police officers to its code enforcement unit was a good idea.
Since mid-January, police have worked in the area off Church Road with the code officials, who enforce county laws covering everything from the number of people in a home to junk cars and overgrown lawns.
The result, Cobb police Chief George Hatfield said, has been a nearly 30 percent drop in property crime.
That was enough to convince the commissioners last week to double the number of police committed to code enforcement in the so-called Quality of Life unit. The unit now will have four officers and a supervisor.
“This has really been a great partnership,” Commission Chairman Sam Olens said.
Gwinnett and Cherokee counties use certified police officers in code enforcement. Gwinnett created its unit in 2005, using armed police officers as an adjunct to its code enforcement officers, who are not armed or certified as police. Gwinnett also has taken the county code enforcement division under its Police Department, said Cpl. Illana T. Spellman, a police spokeswoman.
Cherokee uses its Marshal’s Office for code enforcement.
Kennesaw uses certified police officers for code enforcement. They are armed and wear golf shirts identifying themselves as police.
The Cobb officers also run criminal checks on code violators.
That has resulted in 57 arrests for misdemeanors and six for felonies through Sept. 6, Hatfield said.
The cooperative venture also has produced 310 citations for ordinance violations, had 141 cars towed and confiscated more than 2,000 illegal signs.
“That’s very good for that small a unit,” Hatfield said.
Lawyer Jamie Hernan, whose firm often represents immigrants, cautioned about how the officers in the Quality of Life unit might be used.
“We have seen other jurisdictions that have used these units to not only weed out undocumented immigrants, but to target the poor in general,” said Hernan, whose law firm lists immigration work among its specialties.
Olens said enforcement would be uniform.
“These violations are going to be viewed irrespective of race, income, culture, etc.”
Hatfield said he did not see how the addition of officers to the code enforcement unit could be viewed as an attack on illegal immigrants, because the police department is not able to check a person’s immigration status.
“We’re not down there looking for illegal [immigrants],” Hatfield said.
Among the laws the Cobb officers will enforce is the limit on the number of unrelated adults who can live in one home, based on square footage. Cobb in July said a home had to have at least 390 square feet for each adult resident. Special county permission was required for the standard to be waived.
The occupancy limits drew support from some residents and criticism from advocates for immigrants, who maintained it was a crackdown on those who can’t afford more than a rented room.
As of Sept. 7, Cobb officials had issued at least two citations and 44 warnings, called “notices of violation,” under its home-overcrowding ordinance, according to public records. Of those 44 warnings, 34 are under investigation and 10 have been closed.
Hatfield said he did not think the Quality of Life unit was involved in any of those citations.
Creation of the unit was not a response to enforcing the housing code, Hatfield said.
“If you want to look at the whole program overall, I think we have gotten more aggressive with all the ordinances, not just the housing ordinance,” the chief said.
Copyright 2007 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution