ATL anti-gang initiative begins Friday

By Eric Stirgus

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Atlanta officials said they will begin on Friday an aggressive crime-fighting initiative that particularly focuses on gangs amid concerns that crime is out of control and its police chief has “checked out.”

Police will more frequently patrol areas known for criminal activity and put more officers on its gang unit, Mayor Shirley Franklin said during a testy televised news conference Thursday.

Much of the crime is being committed by gangs and young people who are more brazen and knowledgeable about their targets, Police Chief Richard Pennington said.

The news conference came after a rash of weekend violence on the streets of Atlanta that included the unsolved murder of former boxing champion Vernon Forrest and the carjacking of Councilman Ceasar Mitchell.

Thursday was the first time since those incidents that the mayor and the chief have spoken publicly on crime, raising a fresh round of complaints that city leaders are inattentive to the issue.

“Will this work? I have every confidence...that this will with everyone pulling in the right direction,” the mayor told reporters.

Pennington said he couldn’t previously conduct some of the crime initiatives announced Thursday because of furloughs that began in late December and ended earlier this month.

The department will have an additional 139 officers in training or on the streets by the end of the year, Franklin said. Seventy-three of those officers are new positions that will initially be funded with federal money. The others are recruits who are or will be in training. All of the officers will be on patrol by March 2010, officials said.

Atlanta police have had trouble keeping new officers. More than one-third of the officers who left the force between 2004 and 2007 worked in the department for less than a year, according to an internal audit report released in July 2008.

The department has about 1,670 officers, which includes recruits, said deputy police Chief Peter Andresen. More than 100 officers work at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

The chief said he will consider more patrols in Zones 1, 3 and 4, which have some of the city’s highest crime rates. An internal audit released in April suggested the department needs more officers patrolling those areas.

Pennington, who has said he is leaving the force at year’s end, addressed questions from reporters wondering if he has “checked out.”

Pennington said crime is down in the city, but conceded the department can do more. As for his whereabouts last weekend, the chief said he was at a mandatory training conference in Virginia. “I wasn’t missing in action,” the chief said.

He added, “I have not checked out.”

State Rep. Ralph Long [D-Atlanta], who attended the news conference disagreed.

“That man right there is not around,” Long said of the chief in an interview afterward. “He’s not the leader of the police department.”

The mayor defended Pennington.

“I think he’s a great chief,” Franklin said, leaning into the microphone. “I think he has really reformed this department.”

Since Pennington became chief in July 2002, FBI data shows Atlanta has become safer than several big cities. However, many Atlantans have been unimpressed with the chief’s low-key leadership style.

Critics say he’s not been visible for several major incidents, such as the initial days after the 2006 police shooting death of 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston.

The mayor urged residents to get more involved by watching out for their neighbors and children. She also pushed businesses to install video cameras to help police identify thieves.

Police will consider Mitchell’s suggestion to increase the size of its Red Dog unit, which fights crime in drug-prone areas, Franklin said.

She would not commit to mayoral candidate Kasim Reed’s plea to reopen recreation centers.

Dave Wilkinson, who runs a group that helps supports Atlanta police, said the department needs more cops to truly fight crime. He believes the department needs 2,000 officers, about 300 more than currently on the force.

“If you had that appropriate level of police presence, the police visibility in itself will drive down crime,” said Wilkinson, president of the Atlanta Police Foundation.

Kyle Keyser, who founded the citizen group Atlantans Together Against Crime earlier this year, said he is “pleased that they seemed to be thinking solutions. We’ll see moving forward.”

Staff Writers Alyse Knorr and Steve Visser contributed to this article.