**LEAD STORY**
From time-to-time, this publication tries to take a candid look at problems that emergency agencies appear to be having. Recently, it has been reported that the Atlanta Police Department has been battered by one crisis after another. Many of the problems have become more evident since the fall of 1995, when a corruption scandel hit the department.
Several Atlanta Police officers were interviewed and they had plenty to say. Officers on the street say that morale is very low and their superiors haven't even begun to repair the damage done by recent allegations and press reports. Since morale is so low, officers say that it is becoming more and more difficult to police the city on a daily basis.
Chip Warren is the national vice president of the International Brotherhood of Police Officers and is a former Atlanta Police officer. Warren related, "On a scale of one to ten, morale is a minus one. In the sixteen years I've been here, I've never seen it worse. It's pretty much all they can do right now to go on a call."
In the first quarter of 1996, overall crime in Atlanta has risen by nine percent. One 15-year veteran officer said, "More street violence makes it harder for us to do our job. There's no fear of police anymore ... no respect. The whole time you have to watch out for the 15-year-old who will stick a knife in your back or open you up with an Uzi. And if anything happens, you can just about be guaranteed that the city won't back you up."
Many officers blame the morale problem on the current city administration and especially are upset about "political meddling" by Mayor Bill Campbell and his administration. Chip Warren blames many of the problems with the police department on an "extreme" lack of leadership.
According to Warren, Police Chief Beverly Harvard "has not been allowed to run the police department. The mayor and his office need to keep their noses out of running the police department and start fighting for funding this department. Nobody has talked to these officers and asked, 'What do you think we could do to reduce crime?' Nobody."
Other issues have also contributed to low morale. They include a freezing of pay raises this year. Overtime pay has also been reduced. And, in December, there was an incident at a downtown Atlanta motorcycle shop where an unarmed customer was shot and killed by an officer's ricocheting bullet. The public in Atlanta was said to have been outraged. Shortly thereafter, State of Georgia Attorney General Michael Bowers publicly said that the streets of Atlanta were more dangerous than Sarajevo, Bosnia.
To make matters worse, early this month, a DeKalb County grand jury reportedly charged that Atlanta Police officers often bring "sloppy evidence" to court when seeking criminal indictments. None of these reports are good for the morale of the department and officers say that feel like they're being treated like "punching bags."
Another big problem is that the department is allegedly very under-manned. Manpower is said to be at an all-time low with more than 200 vacancies for sworn personnel available. The department can't seem to hire and train new officers fast enough to fill the vacancies. 80 of the most experienced members of the department took early retirement in 1994. Warren said, "And other officers are still quitting."
Wayne Mock now runs a private security company and is a former high-ranking member of the Atlanta Police Department. He said that the manpower shortage is serious. Mock said, "The officers out there are doing a good job ... they're working. But they're having to move them around so much to do so many things ... it's getting critical."
From what is being described by officers and able observers-- there certainly seems to be a problem in the Atlanta Police Department. Knowledgable insiders tell ENN, however, that it's unlikely that things will get any better until there's an another election and a new city administration.
(c) EmergencyNet News Service, 1996, All Rights Reserved.
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