Post-Press Conference Fallout: Aphorisms Versus Platitudes

I had not been watching Atlanta television news until I tried to watch the press conference yesterday morning.  They are sending people to bang on doors, looking for the Chief of Police, and challenging the Mayor on her unwillingness to address the issue.  My apologies.  The media is alive and kicking in Atlanta.

Yesterday morning, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin and Police Chief Richard Pennington held a press conference to talk about crime.  Here is some of what they said, culled from local news reports:

She asked business to take responsibility and put up cameras to catch crime.  She asked citizens to use Crimestoppers to report crime and to email specialenforcementsectiontips@atlantaga.gov to report crime.

In other words, she wants taxpayers to spend more of their own money doing the job they are paying the city to do.   Businesses should spend even more money taking more responsibility for doing the job law enforcement is supposed to do?  That’s a plan?  Citizens are supposed to busk up the street patrols they already must inappropriately, though responsibly, shoulder?  Enough platitudes about community action.  The community is already fully engaged.

She said she plans to add 139 more police officers to the city’s force in response to criticism that she and the police chief aren’t doing enough about crime.  She said Thursday that the initiative will begin Sept. 15 when 27 new officers hit the streets in areas where a recent string of carjackings have concerned residents.

These 27 guys were already in training, right?  So that’s not a new thing, and it won’t offset attrition through quitting or retiring, I imagine.  Anyway, do those 139 more officers include the 50 new federally funded officers being brought in to replace the 66 officer positions Franklin just cut in anticipation of receiving the federal funds for 50 cops, a move that actually reduced the city’s force by 16, as the erstwhile Stephanie Ramage notes here?  Or will the mayor be adding 139 new officers plus the fifty new federally-funded hires, thus bringing the total to 123 new officers, after her 66 cuts?  Does any of this factor in attrition, retirement, and unfilled posts?  Here are more precise observations from Ramage:

So far this year, according to local IBPO President Sgt. Scott Kreher, the APD has lost 77 officers total due to resignation, retirement, etc. from Jan 1st through June 30th. The department averaged eight resignations per month during that time period. There are 87 eligible to retire in the next 18 months.

Yet, Franklin had the gall to say today that 39 more officers hitting the streets in September will make a difference. And she went on to explain that she has 22 more cops funded under an old JAG grant, 28 new recruits coming out of the academy (they will be assigned to foot patrols in Zone 1) and 50 who will be funded by the Department of Justice’s COPS grant. Remember that COPS grant? That’s the one she counted on landing in order to fund 200 more police officers even as she cut 66 APD positions in June. She landed funding for only 50. . .

I asked Franklin today if she indeed knew she’d only get 50 cops when she cut those 66 positions and she said “We did not cut any filled positions,” which is a very convenient thing to say about a department that has not been fully staffed for at least 14 years.

Three Stooges resonances aside, there is nothing funny about the Mayor’s fudging on the crucial issue of police manpower.  What happened yesterday is that the Mayor stood up in front of a bunch of television cameras and lied about expanding the size of the police force.  She did not say, look, these 27 (or 39) new recruits will offset or fill some of the retiring or unfilled positions, and we are getting 100 more cops later.  She did not talk about or acknowledge the problem of attrition and unfilled jobs.  Instead, she said the opposite, claiming against all evidence that her policies, and Pennington’s leadership, were solving problems they actually created. This is Orwellian:

“We have more police officers and retained them than we have in decades”  [Franklin said.]

According to The List, a fascinating and obsessive book by Chet Dettlinger and Jeff Prugh — necessary reading for historical perspective on policing and politics in Atlanta — there were 1750 Atlanta police officers in the early 70’s.  How many are there today?  Are retention rates really up?  From when?

What happened yesterday was this: the Mayor held a press conference and said three indefensible, dishonest things:

• She essentially blamed the public, and especially business owners, for not spending more of their own hard-earned money on video cameras to catch criminals committing crimes.  The public already is shouldering more than their fair share of crime-prevention, and it is not their commitment that is in question.
• She claimed she has succeeded in expanding the police force and solved the retention problem.  Untrue, on both counts.
• She claimed that Pennington’s reign as police chief is both uncontroversial and successful.

So where are the opinion writers?  Interestingly, Sunday Paper and Creative Loafing howled — Sunday Paper has been leading the charge against Pennington and Franklin on policing for more than a year — but I’ll be surprised if I see anything come out of the flaccid editorial department of the AJC.  And that has everything to do with the preconceptions and biases that rule the mainstream opinion-writers, who still can’t comprehend that the public long-ago wearied of their knee-jerk sympathy for criminals, contempt for cops, and denial of the crime problem at every turn.

So long as Atlanta continues down the path of electing the same, tiny cabal of connected politicians, the needs of city residents will never be the priority of City Hall.  Remember, Franklin came out of Maynard Jackson’s regime, was actually named “Mayor Shirley” by the press while her boss Andy Young jetted around the world lining his pockets instead of serving the City (sound familiar?), and then oversaw the bid-rigged Olympics debacle.  Pennington came to the city through the influence of Franklin’s ex-husband, a much-indicted insider who also chowed down at the vast set-aside well at the airport.

It’s all about money.

However, when you line your pockets instead of doing your job at the Parks and Recreation Department, all that happens is Fanplex.  The stakes are higher in public safety:

Franklin also touted what she has done as mayor over the last eight years and Pennington’s credentials.  “Let me be really clear. He has reformed this department,” said Franklin.
Franklin said she supports and stands by Pennington.  Pennington said he has not checked out. During the last three days he was attending a police leadership conference in Virginia.
Pennington stressed that he wasn’t going anywhere and he would leave when Franklin left.

Where to start?  How about with demands that Pennington account for his whereabouts and hours worked?  Which police leadership conference or training in Virginia?  If he is leaving so soon, was it really necessary for him to be out of the city, or could this “required training” have occurred at, say, the Georgia facility?  Was he really just out of town looking for a new job, on our dime?  Saying he “hasn’t checked out” simply is not good enough without facts.

Or is all of this already yesterday’s news?

Taxpayers should not tolerate five more months of this.  It is too much of a drain on police morale, at this crucial time.  Did anybody watching that press conference yesterday come away believing that the man they were seeing should remain in charge of the police?  What happens when they next crisis erupts — not a tragic crime committed against a high profile person, but a situation requiring leadership decisions and support for the cops risking their lives on the street?

Suggested Aphorism:  When it sounds like a threat to say that the Chief of Police “isn’t going anywhere,” it is time for the Chief of Police to go.