DeKalb County no longer offers public information on nighttime and weekend crime, a cost-cutting measure that county commissioners said they didn't authorize, and the person responsible now finds his job in question over budgetary concerns.
William “Wiz” Miller, DeKalb public safety director, was supposed to cut his personal staff and other administrative positions instead, and his position could be endangered as commissioners attempt to eliminate a proposed tax increase.
“Everything is on the table,” Commissioner Larry Johnson said Monday. “Two years ago, the justification given to us as to why we needed a public safety director was for more officers to be on the street and to consolidate resources. Not one of those things have been done.”
Last week, the commission’s budget committee criticized Miller for not following orders to move more police officers to the street and consolidate police and fire administrative offices, including fleet management, supply, recruiting, professional standards and budgeting.
In response, Miller shut down the public information officer after hours. One of two public information officers was transferred to property crimes, leaving only a civilian communications employee.
Media outlets recently were told that information would only be available 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday through Friday.Miller says that reporters will be able to obtain information after hours by speaking with police commanders at crime scenes.
DeKalb is the only large metro police department that doesn't have officials on-call at all times to provide information to the public. DeKalb residents won’t find out about murders and rapes in their neighborhoods until the next business day, and alerts about missing children and suspects at-large will also be delayed.
Johnson said he didn’t authorize the public information cut and was upset that he had to learn about it from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“I think we need to further look into operations and find out what other kind of efficiencies can be found,” said Johnson, the commission’s presiding officer. “I wish he [Miller] would have let us know before making changes.”
The county last year eliminated a public information officer in the fire department. Miller said the goal is not to stifle information.
“We still have an open government,” Miller said. “It’s not that we’re trying to hide anything. The media will have to bear with us and work with us during these budget constraints.”
Miller said the commission asked him to put officers back on the street. However, police records show eight patrol officers were taken off the street on Friday and sent to criminal investigations, special operations and support services. Five officers were transferred from criminal investigations to patrol.
Miller, who makes $150,000 a year, did not make any changes to his personal staff, which includes a sergeant and a lieutenant. Those officers are needed to assist him with various duties, the public safety director said.
Hollie Manheimer, Georgia First Amendment Foundation executive director, said she is concerned the public information cutback will affect residents’ safety.
“Open government is about maximizing access to public information, and access to crime information is one of the most frequent uses of the open records act,” Manheimer said. “An effort to minimize the availability of public access to crime information works an impediment to the public's ability to monitor its own safety.”
Gwinnett, Cobb, Fulton, Clayton and Atlanta police said they all have officers on call at all hours to handle public information for major incidents.
Gwinnett has two full-time public information officers and four alternates. Atlanta has four, Cobb two and Fulton four. Clayton has two officers and three in training, Lt. Tina Daniel said.
Miller said he will consider hiring additional civilian public information officers when the budget improves.
CEO Burrell Ellis has proposed a 2.32 mill property tax increase. Commissioners are reluctant to raise taxes and will try to cut at least $28 million by the end of the month.
DeKalb Commissioner Jeff Rader said he wants to see cuts and consolidation in administration, but doesn’t think cutting public information is the answer.
“There was a potential to unify the administrative functions and I haven’t seen that,” Rader said.
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