Atlanta's new officers may not hit streets for months

By Jeremy Redmon

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Atlanta’s City Council voted this week to accept $11.2 million in federal stimulus funding to hire 50 new police officers. But don’t expect those officers to hit the streets any time soon.

It could take up to eight months to get them hired, trained and on the job, Deputy Police Chief George Turner said.

“We will have those officers hired by …  no later than January,” Turner said. “We figure that by eight months or less we will have people on the streets working, and the citizens will feel some relief.”

Atlanta’s money was among $1 billion in federal Community Oriented Policing Services grants Vice President Joe Biden announced in July. The money is being made available to create or preserve nearly 5,000 positions in state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies through the COPS Hiring Recovery program.

In all, Georgia law enforcement agencies received $31.7 million through this program, allowing them to create or retain 184 officers, according to a U.S. Justice Department report.

The grants cover entry-level salaries and benefits for three years for newly hired full-time police officers and for rehired officers who have been laid off or are scheduled to be laid off as a result of budget cuts. All the grant-funded positions must be involved in community policing.

On average, it takes at least four months to hire and train an officer in Georgia, said Frank Rotondo, executive director of the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police.

“My biggest concern is: Can they get the people on the street trained in a relatively quick time period?” Rotondo said about the Atlanta Police Department. “I would say someone is going to be hard-pressed in a few months to get people out in numbers on the street. They will have it in the works. But getting out on the street is almost mission impossible.”

Meanwhile, DeKalb County was awarded $3.1 million in grant funds for 15 officers; Fulton County, $1.2 million for seven officers; Clayton County, $862,035 for five officers; Marietta, $856,974 for six officers.

Marietta has already hired four officers since it was awarded the federal money, but it will take the city four to nine months to get them trained and on the job, police spokeswoman Jenny Murphy said. Marietta had 13 vacancies when it applied for the grant.

“Having the opportunity to hire six officers and fill some of those slots will help us,” Murphy said.

Staff writer Eric Stirgus contributed to this article.