The Atlanta Police Department is still reviewing records but already has found that dozens of officers lacked the authority to make arrests because they had not met state requirements for training.
Some cases involving those officers are two decades old, although how many could be affected by the discovery is unknown.
All sides in the criminal justice system agree, though, that the end result could be far-reaching.
“The APD administration’s failures have just compromised a ton of criminal convictions and pending cases,” said a past president of the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Christine A. Koehler. “Somebody’s not doing what they are supposed to be doing over there. ... They have big problems.”
At least 51 APD officers had not received the state-required 20 hours of training per year, and that meant they could not make arrests. Maj. Jeff Glazier, commander of the Atlanta police training academy, said Thursday that more APD officers will likely be found deficient as agency investigators still have about 600 files to review -- or about one-third of the force.
To reclaim their arrest powers, officers will have to make up all the training they missed and seek a waiver from the Peace Officers Standards and Training Council.
Of the 51 found to be lacking in training, seven are on administrative duty pending the resolution of the issue. Nineteen were put on administrative duty but have since brought their training up to date, and the remaining 25 are still being notified that they are on desk duty until they rectify training deficiencies.
Atlanta Police Chief George Turner said the agency was also determining whether any disciplinary action should be taken against the officers.
Since 1990, state law has required all law enforcement officers to get at least 20 hours of training each year in classes covering policies, work-related computer programs or forms officers must fill out. Beginning in 2006, the state said at least one of those hours must be on the use of firearms and another hour must focus on use of force.
The problem was discovered a year ago when academy staff were reviewing the files of officers returning to duty after being away for extended periods. Glazier said he expects the resulting agencywide review of all 1,800 sworn officers to be completed by Sept. 15.
The department does not know how many arrests could be affected.
“Until an actual arrest is challenged in court ... we really don’t know,” Glazier said. “We don’t know what the impact will be.”
Koehler said defense attorneys who handle APD cases have been informed "about the lack of certification so our lawyers will know what to look for, so they’ll know to raise issues with these officers illegally” making arrests.
Also, victims who thought their cases were closed will suffer, Koehler said.
But Fulton District Attorney Paul Howard, whose office prosecutes Atlanta cases, said an arrest or conviction “is not automatically overturned because a police officer's certification has expired. Individual, case-by-case analysis of each criminal matter must take place before such a determination is made."
Turner and Glazier said it did not mean the officers were not certified if they did not have the authority to make arrests.
Cris Beamud, executive director of the Atlanta Civilian Review Board, said that distinction is misleading.
“I don’t think they’re certified,” said Beamud, whose office investigates complaints against APD officers. “There is no gray area."
The APD audit also uncovered “clerical errors” in the training files of about 200 officers. Turner said those errors did not affect officers’ authority to make arrests or take warrants.
Attorney Dan Grossman said the problems from the training deficiencies will not go away after the officers make up the training.
“Even if they were to wave a magic wand ... that doesn’t resolve the issue that there are hundreds of pending cases that are in jeopardy, not to mention the closed ones," he said. "The public is going to be paying the price for a long time.”
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