The Use of Force Advisory Council provided 33 recommendations spanning five areas of focus on policing practices: Mission, Vision, Values; Standard Operating Procedures; Governance; Community Partnerships; and Reporting and Transparency. The Bottoms Administration received feedback on the Advisory Council’s recommendations from an internal APD working group comprised of professionals across various ranks and zones, and from more than 4,000 Atlantans.

Mayor Bottoms announced seven Administrative Orders (AO) that address 16 of the 33 recommendations outlined in the Advisory Council’s report, including:

• Developing a plan for officer training and non-retaliation language regarding an officer’s duty to intervene when seeing another officer using unreasonable force
• Increasing public transparency through the development of a dashboard that shows APD’s use of force trends
• Developing a plan to work with APD, City of Atlanta, alternative response organizations, and other key stakeholders to develop an alternative response continuum

Immediately upon receiving the Use of Force Advisory Council’s 14 day recommendations, Mayor Bottoms acted upon three of the 10 recommendations and asked for legal and operational review on the remaining seven. The recommendations that were immediately adopted and acted upon by the Administration are:

• Commit to improving officer compliance and public transparency of body worn camera footage
• Create a centralized repository for witness footage of use of force by officers
• Extend powers and improve community awareness of Atlanta Citizen Review Board (ACRB)

Mayor Bottoms issued two Administrative Orders related to transforming the City of Atlanta Police Department. The first order calls for the adoption of reforms regarding the Atlanta Police Department’s use of force policies. These immediate reforms include:

• Requiring officer intervention in unreasonable use of deadly force
• Providing restrictions on shooting at moving vehicles
• Applying de-escalation techniques and using only objectively reasonable force necessary
• Requiring reporting of all uses of deadly force by a police officer to the Citizens Review Board

The second order calls for a comprehensive review of how policing should be handled by the City of Atlanta.

Police nationwide have shot and killed nearly 1,000 people annually since 2015, including approximately 181 shootings in the state of Georgia since 2015. Nationwide, although half of the people shot and killed by police are white, black Americans are shot at a disproportionate rate, accounting for less than 13 percent of the U.S. population, while being killed by police at more than twice the rate of white Americans. There remains an urgent need to address issues of police violence, systemic racism, and the need for the transformation of our justice system.

Mayor Bottoms issued an Administrative Order to convene an Advisory Council comprised of community members and partners to examine the City’s use of force policies and procedures. The Advisory Council was charged with making recommendations for operational or legislative changes to the City’s existing use of force policies. Mayor Bottoms issued the Administrative Order following a virtual town hall hosted by former President Barack Obama and the My Brother’s Keeper Foundation which featured a discussion on nationwide police reform in the wake of several days of protest across the country.

Mayor Bottoms joined City officials, the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, and community partners to break ground on a new housing complex on North Avenue in West Atlanta. The complex is part of the Atlanta Police Foundation’s Secure Neighborhoods program designed to reduce crime, improve community policing and provide affordable housing to Atlanta police officers. Secure Neighborhoods offers sworn APD police officers affordable options and incentives to purchase a home that has been renovated or built from the ground up. This program is part of the Westside Security Plan Initiative and is currently focused in three target neighborhoods: English Avenue, Vine City and Pittsburgh.

In early 2018, the City of Atlanta conducted a comprehensive market assessment to form base pay recommendations for APD’s police ranks. Once published, Mayor Bottoms convened a series of priority meetings with APD, the Atlanta Police Foundation, City of Atlanta officials and stakeholders to craft a swift and equitable plan of action to address the compensation concerns.

The pay increase — 30 percent over the next three years — ensures that APD wages are competitive with other agencies in the region and in similarly sized urban centers nationwide. Additionally, this increase stabilizes Atlanta’s police force, enhances the retention of experienced officers, and strengthens recruitment efforts.

Outreach to the LGBTQ community is vital to the Atlanta Police Department (APD) because of the need for stronger understanding and trust with all the communities they serve.

In April 2018, APD launched its first-ever LGBTQ Citizens Police Academy, a specialized program facilitated by APD’s LGBTQ Liaison Unit officers. The program consisted of information on core Citizens Police Academy topics including homicide, human trafficking, use of force and more. All of the topics were accompanied by conversations on the challenges faced by the LGBTQ community and how to better partner with police.