Council president race highlights politics of policing in Atlanta
Campaigns of the two candidates vying for the coveted Atlanta City Council president position highlight a yearslong debate over how best to bolster the city’s public safety — investments in social services or in officers, equipment and training.
It’s a policy debate with origins tied to the summer of 2020 and the nationwide protests demanding policing reform in the wake of George Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis officer. That debate only intensified in recent years during construction of the city’s new $117 million public safety training center.
Two-term Councilmember Marci Collier Overstreet — endorsed by Mayor Andre Dickens and many of her fellow council members — voted in favor of the facility every step of the way. She supports continued high levels of funding for Atlanta’s police department and says it is the way to continue keeping crime in check.
The City Council passed a fiscal 2025 budget in the spring with a 20% increase in spending on Atlanta police, by far the largest general fund expense at more than $361 million.
Rohit Malhotra, a progressive policy nonprofit founder, is challenging Overstreet. He stood on the other side of the council dais during votes on the training facility, and with residents and organizations urging the city to halt the project and redirect funding toward community-based diversion programs.
Malhotra also supported the effort to force a public vote on the facility through a referendum, which has been held up in court for more than two years.
The public safety hub was billed by elected officials as the best path to highly trained officers, while opponents decried its location, pointed to the city’s failure to engage with residents on the project and worried it will lead to more militarized policing.
“I believe that the city of Atlanta is getting public safety right, right now,” Overstreet told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I wouldn’t take away from our progress by changing the things that we’ve invested in.”
Malhotra advocates for more money to diversion programs, wraparound services and victim supports to try to curb crimes often committed by at-risk residents.
“I think that that will lead to greater retention and recruitment for officers if they feel they are not being asked to do things that are not within their purview and within their capability to do,” Malhotra said.
The City Council president doesn’t introduce or sponsor legislation. But the position is seen as a bridge between the community, City Council and mayor’s office. And the president is next in line if the mayor is incapacitated or forced to leave office.
And Malhotra’s past work with progressive Atlanta organizations opposed to the training facility has become a prime target of his critics.
Email attacks muddy policy debate
Emails circulated in September attacked Malhotra for his nonprofit’s financial support of the Community Movement Builders and Working Families Party — two groups that spearheaded opposition to the training center.
The first of a series of emails features a photo of Malhotra paired with images of violent protests and street racers under the headline “alarming threat to public safety.”
The attacks and a corresponding website, called “The Real Rohit,” point to grant funding doled out by Malhotra’s nonprofit to the two groups that have in the past called for defunding and abolishing police. The website was recently taken down.
Overstreet maintains that she was not involved in the creation and distribution of the emails. But Fred Hicks, a consultant on her campaign, acknowledged that he registered the domain for the website promoting the attacks.
Onstage at the Atlanta Press Club debate last week, Overstreet repeated the “defund the police” allegations included in the emails that were sent to Atlanta voters, nonprofit leaders and even some local government officials.
She said Malhotra needs to “own up” to giving money to those organizations.
Malhotra accused Overstreet of spreading “dangerous and divisive” messages to score political points.
“We all know the tropes that are being used are intended to just stroke fear,” Malhotra told the AJC.
He also defended providing financial support to grassroots advocacy groups and condemned the “vilification” of community-based organizations that have pushed back against the city’s approach to public safety.
“All of our money that we have given to people is transparent — we have funded almost 250 organizations,” he said. “I’m not here to tell them what to feel or what their politics should be.”
Community organizations respond to ‘defund the police’ attacks
Multiple emails have circulated to city of Atlanta voters criticizing council president candidate Rohit Malhotra for donations made by his nonprofit organization to other nonprofits that have called for defunding and abolishing the Atlanta Police Department in the past.
Critics say the emails are an attempt to rekindle voter fears around “defund the police” rhetoric that became Republican political warfare against groups advocating for a more comprehensive approach to public safety in 2020.
“People that claim to be pro-police think that other people ... are anti-police, which is fundamentally untrue,” said politics and policy expert Tammy Greer with Georgia State University. “And when we are categorizing people that way, it’s pinning communities against each other.”
Overstreet says the additional money in the police budget this year was the right approach, particularly since a large percentage of the city’s $33 million budget deficit last year was attributed to police overtime.
“I will not be cutting the police budget — that I am sure of,” Overstreet said. “I won’t be defunding the police during this next budget cycle — like I haven’t for the past eight budget cycles.
“I don’t think that’s the direction that the city needs to go in.”
Earlier this year, the Dickens administration considered ending the contract with the city’s founding pre-arrest diversion program, called the Policing Alternatives and Diversion Initiative.
The organization helps residents experiencing extreme poverty, substance abuse, or mental health problems avoid jail and connect with community-based resources.
PAD operates on the same community-based approach that Malhotra wants expanded.
During a public safety town hall event last week, Malhotra criticized city leaders for failing to lean on and involve the nonprofit community more heavily in efforts to bolster public safety.
“Community-based violence interruption work isn’t just community trying to act like officers,” he said. “It’s complementing (police) where they may not have the resources, the training, the ability or the relationships to be able to be as effective.”
Overstreet argues the investments in police have boosted officer morale by providing new equipment and a take-home car program, wage and benefit increases and the newly opened state-of-the-art training center.
“They know that we care about them as human beings, and we want to make their jobs doable,” she said.
Appointing committee chairs is one of the key roles of the City Council president. Overstreet said she would appoint a council member who voted in favor of the public safety training facility as chairperson of the council’s Public Safety Committee.
“That’s the right thing to do,” she said. “It will make Atlanta less safe if the right person is not named as our public safety chair.”
Malhotra has declined to say exactly what he thinks is the appropriate level of police funding. He said the city’s budget process makes it difficult to know how much is going for supportive services, and he would like more transparency in the spending document.
“I want to make sure that every part of public safety is funded, and that would include the police department, but it is not limited to the police department,” he said.
Early voting begins Tuesday in municipal elections across the state.
Early voting:
Early voting for the municipal election in Georgia is Oct. 14-31. The only statewide contest this cycle is a special election for the Public Service Commission, which has oversight for energy and utility rates. Otherwise, cities across Georgia will elect mayors, council members and judges. Election Day is Nov. 4.
About the Author
Riley Bunch is a reporter on the local government team at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution covering Atlanta City Hall. She covers the mayor and Atlanta City Council while also keeping an eye on the city’s diverse neighborhoods.
