A citizen review of all Atlanta police deadly force cases now has the full support of the Atlanta Police Department.
“I’ve got to be able to hold myself accountable. I have to be able to hold the department accountable,” Chief Darin Schierbaum told the Atlanta Citizen Review Board Thursday in his first public comments to the board on his department’s failure to promptly tell the citizen oversight board about all officer shootings and custody deaths since 2020.
Schierbaum said that an agreement being drafted on how the police will work with the board needs to include defined responsibilities, timelines and roles for everyone.
Schierbaum’s pledge is a significant step in the city’s ongoing efforts to address the findings of an Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigation that the citizen board had failed to investigate any shootings or civilian deaths in police custody in the past four years.
In some cases, the police had withheld information about the cases from the review board, which was given expanded powers in 2020 to investigate and hold public hearings on police use of deadly force in the wake of the fatal arrests of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta. The board’s role is to look at officers’ conduct and recommend changes that may be needed in police training to avoid similar incidents in the future.
Schierbaum was remorseful for the department’s role in the delayed investigations and promised to do better.
“I was very grieved to learn that we had in the past not informed the board promptly of officer-involved shootings in the city, and we moved quickly to make sure we addressed that,” Schierbaum told the review board. “You should expect promptness and transparency from our office.”
The heads of both agencies are working on an agreement about how the police will notify the board about deadly force cases in the future. The mayor’s office has facilitated the discussions since the AJC’s findings published in January prompted outcries from the City Council and Mayor Andre Dickens.
Councilwoman Andrea Boone, who heads the council’s public safety committee which is driving public discussion on this issue, said the agreement was a step in the right direction but that further changes to the city’s ordinance on how the board functions are probably needed. City Council staff have contacted other cities to discuss how their police oversight boards are run, she said.
“We definitely needed something in writing,” Boone told the AJC.
Boone, who represents District 10 and was the first to criticize the board for its inaction, said the Civil Service Board’s decision to uphold the firing of former Atlanta police officer Kiran Kimbrough following the fatal arrest of Johnny Hollman was a positive news for the city. The review board will independently review Hollman’s in-custody death as well. Hollman, 62, was tased and became unresponsive after he refused to sign a traffic citation in August 2023. The city changed its ticket signing policy and paid a $3.8 million settlement to Hollman’s family in the wake of his death.
“Bringing all of this to the attention of the public is helping. The mayor also wants this citizen review board to function correctly,” Boone said.
In a statement released Wednesday, a city spokesperson said the mayor “fully supports Chief Schierbaum’s commitment to transparency and accountability, including his call for a review of the department’s use of deadly force. This is a critical step in strengthening community trust and ensuring our public safety practices reflect the values of our city.”
The board’s Executive Director Lee Reid is expected to give an update on their progress to the council’s public safety committee that Boone heads on April 28.
Reid was adamant during his February committee appearance that the board had done nothing wrong. City Council member, Dustin Hillis, accused Reid of waiting to be handed cases on a “silver platter” resulting in unnecessary years-long delays.
When the review board should start its investigation is being debated. Reid has said he must wait for the district attorney’s office and police internal affairs to complete their investigations before beginning the board’s reviews. But a civilian oversight expert said it is unusual for a police oversight board to wait for police to end their investigation, which can take years.
Schierbaum in August stopped waiting for the district attorney’s office to decide whether to charge officers in the incidents and instructed the department’s internal affairs to investigate officers’ conduct and dole out discipline as warranted.
The Atlanta Police Department is the largest police force in Georgia and employs more than 1,600 police officers. The review board was formed in 2007 to independently investigate citizen complaints of officer misconduct and recommend discipline, reforms and training to the police department.
The City Council broadened the board’s powers to investigate all police shootings and in-custody deaths in 2020.
Board members are expected to discuss and revise the agreement before it is finalized. No date for the workshop has been set. Citizen Review Board Chairman Kelvin Williams did not return phone calls seeking comment.
The Atlanta Police Department responded to more than 600,000 calls and had contact with more than 1 million residents last year, Schierbaum told the board. There were eight police shootings and one death in police custody that same year.
Schierbaum said he expects his officers to treat everyone respectfully and respond to every call correctly.
He commended the 15-member review board for its police oversight work. “You all serve in a volunteer capacity, but you have the same mission as I do as chief of police, which is to have a trusted police department,” Schierbaum said.
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