DUNWOODY: Officials negotiate police options

Trying to stay true to a no-tax increase promise, leaders in Dunwoody are weighing whether their first police force will be from the DeKalb County Sheriff’s office or two local municipalities.

Dunwoody officially begins operating as Georgia’s newest city on Dec. 1, though it plans to rely on DeKalb police until the end of the year. But come Jan. 1, the city must pay someone for police protection until it can get its own department running sometime in 2009.

If the city goes with a proposal from DeKalb Sheriff Thomas Brown, it could change the timetable for a separate Dunwoody force. Brown’s plan calls for at least a yearlong contract, to provide 22 officers for about $1.3 million per year.

“Obviously, they would not be able to staff up like that for just 90 or 120 days, and obviously we want to keep it as flexible as we can,” said Dunwoody councilman Tom Taylor, who has met with agencies proposing to provide the gap coverage.

Taylor declined to discuss the two cities in talks with Dunwoody. However, both proposals appear to fall in line with Dunwoody’s previously stated goal of having its own force patrolling the city by April.

Brown said he wants a four-year contract, or if it’s a more temporary deal, guaranteed jobs on a new Dunwoody force for those officers he hires.

A deal with the sheriff’s office —- which oversees jail and court operations and serves warrants but has no investigative unit —- would require Brown to create a new division in his office just for Dunwoody.

“I don’t see it really going anywhere, because they’re under a very tight timeline,” Brown said, adding that any deal would require county commission approval when county leaders are already negotiating with the city for the police department to provide the service.

Advocates for cityhood made their case earlier this year in part by pledging that Dunwoody could offer more police officers per shift than now provided by DeKalb police.

Three county police officers work Dunwoody in each of three overlapping shifts per day.

Dunwoody leaders want four patrol officers in the city on each eight-hour shift.

Brown’s proposal of 22 officers —- including detective and crime scene investigators —- may not meet that goal, but it does provide huge cost savings from what county police said it will cost to continue their service, Taylor said. Those figures have not been disclosed.

City and county officials met in negotiations again Friday, trying to hash out all services for when Dunwoody begins operations. Officials on both sides said police coverage remained a key sticking point.

DeKalb Police Chief Terrell Bolton has not sat in on all of the talks but has had a representative present. He would not comment on a potential deal between Dunwoody and the sheriff’s office.

“I will take my lead with the county negotiators,” he said. “We will honor the decision by the Board of Commissioners and the people involved in the negotiations.”

Taylor said the city would like to continue with DeKalb police, if the two sides could come closer on the cost for gap service.

“We’d really like to have our own police department, but we won’t on day one,” Taylor said. “We’ve got to be looking at all options.”