The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is seeking $3.7 million to hire and train 20 additional agents to help with an increased workload for police shooting cases, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has learned.
The GBI has become the de facto investigator of police shootings for Georgia, fielding 80 to 100 calls a year from the more than 600 police agencies across the state. About 29 cases per year involve people who were shot to death by police.
The increased workload has caused a backup in other types of investigations, said Vernon Keenan, the GBI director. He said most serious officer-involved shooting cases take about two months to complete and take a team of agents to assist.
“The community expects transparency,” Keenan said. “They expect an outside party to do the investigations. Law enforcement agencies have recognized this and the only outside agency to do this is GBI.”
The proposal has already been adopted in the House budget and the Senate adopted the measure Thursday, with funding for 24 additional agents. Keenan said most shootings are justified, but the impact of social media and the way it can shape the public dialogue about a shooting has put extra pressure on investigators to act swiftly.
“The only way you can address dialogue like that is to have a thorough investigation, which becomes public and the facts will speak for themselves,” he said. “In today’s environment, there’s no such thing as a clear cut use of force. They all require the same intense investigative process to establish the facts.”
About the Author
