Public safety advocates are condemning Atlanta Police Chief George Turner's ouster of an officer they credit with restoring confidence in the police in their neighborhoods.
Turner booted Major Khirus Williams as top cop in the zone that includes Midtown last week after Williams told neighborhood leaders about a proposal to eliminate foot and cycle patrols and to instead put the officers in squad cars. The proposal had not been made public when Williams alerted neighborhood leaders.
On Tuesday, those leaders converged on the Atlanta City Council's public safety committee and strongly requested that council members help get Williams reinstated as the major for Zone 5. The committee listened as they heard Williams described as the one APD commander that had instilled their confidence in the police and recommended they take the case to Mayor Kasim Reed, who is the authority over Turner.
More than a half dozen officers in neighborhood associations and ordinary residents talked about Williams' work ethic and commitment to partnering with the public on safety issues.
"I would ask you to question the chief's judgment," said Kathy Boehmer, public safety chair for the Home Park Neighborhood Improvement Association near Georgia Tech. "This sends a rotten message not only to the officers below him but to the citizens of Atlanta."
"He treated our community as if he lives there," said Rick Day, a businessman, and public safety chair of the Midtown Neighborhood Association.
Dan Grossman, a lawyer, told the committee Williams had tried to meet with Turner to argue against the proposal that would gut his community policing strategy but was rebuffed. Grossman, who said he did not represent Williams but had spoken with him, said the major told Turner he was going to inform the neighborhoods about the plan.
"Nobody told him not to," Grossman said.
Neighborhood leaders are now questioning if Turner is more concerned about keeping subordinates in line than he is about having quality commanders. They also question Turner's commitment to community policing, a strategy in which cops work closely with the community. They credit it for last year's 16-percent drop in crime in Zone 5, which stretches from downtown to Atlantic Station.
"We thought, ‘Are you crazy? We spent all this time trying to get crime under control and everybody working together and now you do this,'” Boehmer said. “Chief Turner seems like he wants to surround himself with yes people."
The APD just started a specialized community policing unit with a $11 million grant but advocates say Williams pioneered the strategy and implemented it at all officer levels, which is how experts contend it is most effective.
"Having Midtown covered by 911 cars is after-the-fact policing and not proactive policing," said Peggy Denby, president of the Midtown Ponce Security Alliance. "It doesn't work for Midtown and in downtown either."
Turner's approachable nature and willingness to make tough decisions, such as dismantling the heavy-handed Red Dog unit, had made many community leaders view him as a step toward restoring public confidence in the police after problems with the city's last two police chiefs. He won kudos for targeting gangs and for arrests in high-profile crimes and pushed a partnership with universities, businesses and downtown and Midtown associations to have surveillance cameras covering more public space. Overall crime rates continued to fall.
Now the honeymoon appears over.
"Everybody had thought highly of Chief Turner and that he was going to bring in a different mentality to APD," said Kip Rupp, president of the Old Fourth Ward Patrol. "When you see how Major Williams was handled it sends a message that APD cares more about not stepping on egos than than they do about the residents of the zone. Period. And that is just appalling.”
On April 20, Williams emailed community leaders about what he said was a proposal by Deputy Chief Ernest Finley, who has deep ties to Turner, to get rid of Segway and motorcycle units, bicycle and foot patrols in Midtown so the officers could answer 911 calls in patrol cars. The proposal would have had one Midtown officer covering four beats.
Williams encouraged lobbying Turner to reject the proposal.
Last week, Williams emailed neighborhood leaders again saying he was being forced into retirement because of the email two weeks earlier.
"This makes me have less confidence in Turner," said said Kit Sutherland, president of the Fourth Ward Alliance. "There is more at stake here than whether Major Williams stepped out of line, and I don't think the punishment fits the crime."
On Thursday, Turner said in a statement there are no plans to cut cycle and foot patrols, but the brass is discussing how to deploy officers to better respond to 911 calls.
"When you take police officers out of patrol cars, you reduce response time tremendously," Turner told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "I just ask people to look at what we have done. We have added more police officers than any administration in a short time. Ten additional officers went to Zone 5 (last) week. That is not taking away resources.”
Williams said unless he retires Wednesday he will be demoted to lieutenant. The department "reassigns" majors and deputy chiefs when they lose the confidence of the chief to the highest civil-service-protected rank.
Atlanta City Councilman Ivory Young defended Turner, saying the community didn't understand Turner's support of the community policing strategies. "It is a collaborative effort," Young, chair of the public-safety committee, told the AJC before the meeting. "From what I'm hearing it is like the chief of police didn't exist."
Turner said he will appoint a new Zone 5 commander "soon" and he or she will be dedicated to the same police vision as Williams. "Community policing is what I'm hanging my hat on," the chief said.
Grossman, who sues the city in police misconduct cases, said Williams' personality could grate on superiors but he held officers accountable and was held in high regard by the public, including members who are often critical of the police.
"Khirus pushes limits, and I wouldn't love him reporting to me if I was his commander," Grossman said. "He really wants things done well and APD often doesn't care about that. They want go-along, get-along."
Turner declined to discuss Williams' ouster. But the chief referenced crime statistics that show Zone 5 is seeing a strong uptick in crime under Williams' command. There was a 14 percent bump in burglaries and a 67 percent jump in robberies this year compared to the same time frame last year with no increase in arrests.
Those numbers compare unfavorably to neighboring zones. In Zone 6, in eastern Atlanta, robbery was down 13 percent and burglary was down 10 percent; in Zone 1, in western Atlanta, robbery was down 8 percent and burglary 16 percent.
Zone commanders are expected to move resources to combat crime trends, Turner said.
In a department in which careers rise and fall on statistics, Williams was already having a tough start in 2011 when the email controversy blew up. Plus, an inquiry into a grievance filed against him indicated that at least some officers found his leadership style insufferable.
But Williams got only kudos from neighborhood leaders. Under Williams the beat officer in Home Park -- the center for much crime in the Georgia Tech area -- got to know the neighborhood so well he knew when certain residents were on vacation, Boehmer said.
“Everybody here really believes that having that regular police presence in the neighborhood is what has cut back on the crime.” Boehmer said. “It used to be the officers would just ignore us – they didn’t have the time of day for us. Under Major Williams they seemed to have greater respect for the people they were suppose to protect.”
"Major Williams is amazing. He pretty much walks on water in Zone 5.”
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