“Ferguson is not seen as a watershed moment for us to change what we are doing in terms of use of force.”

That's what Lt. Brian Marshall said as The Atlanta Journal-Constitution asked a dozen local police agencies whether recent policing controversies around the country, including in Baltimore and Ferguson, Mo., have or should spur changes in policy and procedure.

Some departments say they are responding — moving forward on employing body cameras, among other things — but several local departments asserted that they are largely getting it right and that police are being scapegoated.

Marshall works for the Marietta Police Department, recognized as one of the best agencies at community outreach by President Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing.

He said Ferguson's real lesson was about improving community relations.

Read the complete story, with more perspectives, on how metro police agencies interpret the ongoing debate on use of force

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Atlanta civil rights leader and international human rights activist Joe Beasley, pictured in 2011, died Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025, at age 88. (Curtis Compton/AJC 2011 )

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