Cobb County commuters must be seeing fewer blue lights.
Police in Cobb County have written 27 percent fewer traffic tickets this year, reflecting added budget pressures that have meant furlough days for cops and elimination of their overtime hours.
However, police and court officials say the slowdown is not a deliberate protest by frustrated officers, like a traffic ticket furlough that DeKalb County police officers organized last year to protest furloughs. That ticket furlough wound up costing DeKalb County $5 million.
"I don't support that, and anybody from the Fraternal Order of Police would not support an organized work slowdown," said Jorge Mestre, president of the North Metro Fraternal Order of Police Lodge, whose members include Cobb County police officers.
Cobb Police spokesman Sgt. Dana Pierce declined to comment about the furloughs and ticket dropoff.
Diane Webb, clerk of Cobb County State Court, said the number of traffic tickets has been decreasing since 2009. She does not believe an unofficial ticket furlough is in effect. In 2009, police wrote 50,383 traffic citations. In 2010, they wrote 42,912 -- a 15 percent slide. Webb attributed the slowdowns that continued this year to several factors, including attrition, a wave of early retirements, training requirements that took more officers off the streets, and the recent ban on overtime.
Mestre said officer morale is very low because of the budget cuts.
"It is negatively affecting every single unit," Mestre said.
County employees must take five furlough days between April 1 and Sept. 30, when the county's fiscal year ends. But budget woes won't end there. Declining tax revenue means Cobb County is heading into the new fiscal year with a projected $15 million deficit, which is likely to prompt more furloughs and other cost-cutting measures.
Mestre hopes commissioners will raise the millage rate. He doesn't believe services can be maintained at the current level given the cuts to police, fire and EMS workers.
"Somebody will not get the services they need in a timely fashion," Mestre said. "It's going to cause somebody to either be hurt or killed. I can't tell you when it's going to happen, I can't tell you where it's going to happen, but it's going to happen if they continue these cuts."
Most commissioners have not been willing to raise property taxes in Cobb, which has a millage rate of 9.6 mills, one of the lowest in the area.
Commissioner Bob Ott, whose district includes southeast Cobb, has been one of the staunchest opponents to raising taxes. He has said the county must first get its spending under control.
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