Fulton County isn’t the only local government that provides police escorts to elected officials. The City of Atlanta and DeKalb County also pay for “executive protection” – and have had their own controversies about the practice.
Atlanta spent $421,024 last year to pay for seven officers to protect and drive Mayor Kasim Reed. The team has been reduced to six officers this year. The officers work different shifts, though the mayor’s office wouldn’t discuss the specifics of how the officers are assigned. Atlanta does not provide executive protection or drivers to City Council members.
Spokesman Carlos Campos said Reed’s level of protection is reasonable and is now less than the previous mayor, Shirley Franklin, who had seven officers in her final year. Longtime Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson’s nine-member protection team drew criticism in the ’80s and ’90s, when some said it cost too much.
Campos said it’s common for big-city mayors to have protection. He said every Atlanta mayor since Sam Massell in the 1970s has had executive protection and that it allows Reed to focus on his job.
“Here in Atlanta, the mayor’s office receives threats periodically throughout the year, from individuals locally and throughout the nation,” Campos said.
DeKalb spent about $125,000 a year on two full-time and one part-time officer to protect and drive CEO Burrell Ellis, who was suspended last year amid political corruption allegations. The county spends a little less now because interim CEO Lee May does not use the part-time officer on weekends, according to spokesman Burke Brennan. DeKalb does not provide regular protection for county commissioners.
May said protection for the CEO started after the 2000 murder of DeKalb Sheriff-elect Derwin Brown, which was ordered by the incumbent sheriff he defeated. In 2003, then-CEO Vernon Jones’ three-member security detail drew criticism and a grand jury investigation. Jurors called the security team “a very expensive decoration,” but the practice continues.
May, who became interim CEO last year, said the security is needed.
“You are the most visible elected official in DeKalb County,” he said. “It’s really precautionary – not saying anything will happen. It’s more being safe than sorry.”
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