Mayoral candidates: Improve disaster preparedness

By Eric Stirgus

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Several Atlanta mayoral candidates said Thursday that the city needs to be better prepared for natural disasters, such as the flooding that devastated the metro area earlier this week.

City Council President Lisa Borders and Councilwoman Mary Norwood both said at a debate that the city needs a system that can alert residents about an emergency, possibly by text messages on cellphones.

“I think that is the missing link,” said Borders.

The city has a partnership with Fulton County to provide emergency communications.

The debate was held at Spelman College, where sophomore Jasmine Lynn was shot and killed this month by a stray bullet at the nearby campus of Clark Atlanta University. The case is unsolved.

The candidates were asked what they will do to improve campus security. Former state Sen. Kasim Reed said he would open the mini police precinct on the Atlanta University Center, which includes Spelman, Clark Atlanta, Morehouse and Morris Brown colleges. Reed also called for more police patrols of the area.

Write-in candidate Tiffany Brown, a Clark Atlanta and Spelman graduate, called for a text message system that can notify students when an incident is taking place.

“That could have saved Jasmine’s life,” said Brown.

Eyewitnesses said a fight broke out shortly before the shooting.

Candidate Jesse Spikes, a partner at the law firm McKenna, Long & Aldridge, said better communication between campus police and the Atlanta Police Department is necessary and said he’s worried about the ease with which nonstudents can enter the AUC.

Norwood suggested a surveillance system on campuses.

“I have asked for it and haven’t been able to get it,” said Norwood, who noted video surveillance is in business districts like Buckhead. The city is hoping for federal economic stimulus funds to post additional surveillance cameras in other parts of Atlanta.

The sixth candidate at the forum, former Atlanta police officer Peter Brownlowe, said he would have Atlanta police work with other jurisdictions on campus security.

About 300 people attended the debate, which was sponsored by the Georgia Association of Black Women Attorneys, the Gate City Bar Association and the Spelman College Government Association.