CALL TO ACTION ON POLICING IN AVONDALE ESTATES
Dear Ally and Avondale Alliance for Racial Justice Members,
Given the events of this week (see below*), we need you to reach out to Avondale City Leaders and urge them to transform policing. We believe now is the time to hire a third party consultant with experience evaluating racial impact of policing and also to urge the city to hire a Police Chief from outside the AEPD to help change the culture. See specific requests and suggested script below for calls or emails. Please act as soon as possible. Thank you.
*A policing audit by the state found numerous deficiencies in policies, documentation and compliance. The police chief retired and the compliance officer resigned.
CALL TO ACTION ON POLICING IN AVONDALE ESTATES: URGE THE BOMC and CITY OF AVONDALE ESTATES TO HIRE A CONSULTANT TO REVIEW POLICING IN AE: CONTACTS: Board of Mayors and Commissioners and City Managers
Jonathan Elmore, MayorEmail: JElmore@avondaleestates.orgPhone: 404-644-8080Took Office: January 2016Term Expires: December 2023
Brian Fisher, Mayor Pro Tem
Email:BFisher@avondaleestates.org
Phone: 404-247-3650
Took Office: January 2016
Term Expires: December 2023
Lionel Laratte, Commissioner
Email: llaratte@avondaleestates.org
Phone: 215-919-0290
Took Office: January 2018
Term Expires: December 2021
Dee Merriam, Commissioner
Email: dmerriam@avondaleestates.org
Phone: 404-423-5393
Took Office: January 2020
Term Expires: December 2023
Lisa Shortell, Commissioner
Email: lshortell@avondaleestates.org
Phone: 404-386-7169
Took Office: January 2018
Term Expires: December 2021
Patrick Bryant, City Manager, City of Avondale Estates
Phone: 404-294-5400
Email: pbryant@avondaleestates.org
Paul Hanebuth, Asst. City Manager
Phone: 404-294-5400
Email: phanebuth@avondaleestates.org
Please customize your phone script or email based on information below:
1) Who you are:
My name is _________________________ and I am
A) a resident of Avondale Estates. AND/OR
B) I am a concerned neighbor from ___________ (Decatur/Atlanta, etc) who frequents your restaurants, breweries and other businesses in Avondale.
C) I am the parent of a child who attends school in Avondale.
D) I am a business owner in Avondale.
2) Why you are calling:
I’m calling to urge the Board of Mayors and Commissioners and the City of Avondale to move forward as soon as possible with the hiring of an outside consultant to evaluate policing in Avondale.
I’m concerned about the deficiencies in policy and documentation that were found during the recent attempt to receive State Accreditation. Now, more than ever, we need to also review our law enforcement practices and records.
I believe we need to bring in fresh leadership to our police force to reset the culture and mindset of our police.
I believe we need to understand what role, if any, implicit bias may be having on the application of our laws. We want to prevent any racially biased incidents or inappropriate escalation of force in Avondale.
I want the AEPD to also get consultation on moving more toward a community policing model with an emphasis on transparency, community-building and problem-solving.
We don’t want to just react when racial injustice is in the national headlines. We have already delayed for over a year on following through on this. Now that the State Accreditation process has resulted in non-accreditation, we need to move forward with the hiring of the consultant NOW.
3) Please personalize why you have concern about policing and believe a review of police polices and practices is needed. Here are some of the reasons we are concerned:
I’m concerned about the heavy police presence along Covington Highway and North Avondale Rd. and the high frequency of traffic stops I observe whenever I am out driving in Avondale.
I’m concerned about the large racial imbalance in people who are being ticketed and who are filling our courtroom on a regular basis.
I’m concerned about the impact we are having on our neighboring communities that travel through Avondale on a regular basis. I believe we are making people feel unwelcome in Avondale by the way we police.
I’m concerned about the impact our policing has had on the parents of Avondale Elementary School and feelings some have expressed of being aggressively policed during drop-off of their children at school and feeling unwelcome in our community.
4) Thank you and final call for action.
Thank you for your consideration. Please let me know when you anticipate hiring the third party consultant. I know you already set aside funding last year and interviewed two candidates and I appreciate those efforts.
***
Background - Issues of Concern around policing:
Why Now?
Since June 2020, almost 1000 people have signed the AARJ petition asking the city to adopt President Obama’s 21st Century Policing Guidelines. We attended a meeting with the BOMC and they wanted to hire a consultant. We agreed with that idea, providing they also looked at racial impacts of our policing practices. They interviewed two consultants in July of 2020, then the BOMC and the City Manager chose to postpone hiring a consultant until a State Accreditation process could be completed first, to ensure that policies and procedures met the standards of the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police. The City Manager also said they did not have enough staff to work on accreditation and with a consultant at the same time.
One year later, the AEPD has failed to meet these standards and achieve accreditation. The audit found numerous deficiencies in policies, documentation and compliance. They also cited the “sarcastic and indifferent” response they received from police leadership during the audit. Subsequently, the Police Chief has chosen to retire and the Lieutenant in charge of the accreditation process has resigned.
This is a huge opportunity to reset the leadership, culture and mindset of our police department.
Why is this an issue at all, what is the concern? (More Background)
Data analysis led by Patti Ghezzi of two years’ worth of traffic tickets in Avondale Estates revealed a huge imbalance in who is being ticketed - with approximately 80% of tickets going to drivers who are black or other people of color in a city that is 85% white. Ticketing is happening almost exclusively along Covington Highway/N. Avondale Rd., which is widely perceived as a speed trap and money-maker for the City. We are concerned about the impact this is having on individuals who travel to or through our City on a daily basis along this corridor and the wide-spread perception we harass BIPOC.
During that period, Avondale Estates received 14% of revenue from tickets, which is more than double the percentage for any other comparably-sized city in Georgia, including Decatur, Stone Mountain or Clarkston.
Also, prior to COVID, there were numerous complaints made by parents of Avondale Elementary School students that they were being heavily policed during drop-off and pick-up times with many being pulled over and ticketed. These were primarily parents who are part of the School Choice Program and chose to enroll their children in Avondale and travel from outside the city to attend, approaching the school via Covington Highway. Several attempts were made to communicate these concerns to AE police and administrators, with parent/teacher meetings with the Police Chief and Asst. City Manager, and a phone discussion by AARJ leadership with the Police Chief. The parents reported feeling unwelcome in Avondale and the conversations did not yield much understanding of the problem by the Police Chief.
You can get additional background from https://www.targetedinavondaleestates.com or