Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms Takes Immediate Action Upon Receiving Use of Force Advisory Council’s 14-day Recommendations

Atlanta — Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms received the Use of Force Advisory Council’s 14-day recommendations as mandated in Administrative Order 2020-18.

“In just 14 days, the Use of Force Advisory Council has developed meaningful recommendations to begin the process of revising Atlanta’s Use of Force polices to rebuild trust in our communities,” said Mayor Bottoms.

Upon receiving the Advisory Council’s recommendations, Mayor Bottoms immediately acted upon three of the 10 recommendations by issuing three Administrative Orders and a letter to the Atlanta Citizen Review Board (ACRB).

The recommendations that have been adopted and acted upon by the Administration are:

Commit to identifying policies to improve officer compliance and public transparency of captured body worn camera footage,

Create a centralized repository for witness footage of use of force by officers, and

Extend powers and community awareness of Atlanta Citizen Review Board (ACRB).

The Council’s 10 early actions are outlined below:

Commit to revising the Use of Force continuum in Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) to increase specificity and align with best practices;

Ensure that changes taken under the Mayor’s Administrative Orders 2020-18 align with best practice policy changes from other cities and continue measures for accountability;

Commit to identifying policies to improve officer compliance and public transparency of captured body worn camera footage;

Create a centralized repository for witness footage of use of force by officers;

Mandate immediate drug testing for officers when a use of force incident resulting in serious injury or death occurs;

Commit to re-evaluating and revising mission, vision, core values, and oath

of the Atlanta Police Department;

Conduct additional screenings – including mental health and implicit bias assessments – for all applicants during the recruiting process, and on an ongoing basis for all officers;

Require more exhaustive background checks with attention to record of complaints from other agencies, previous applications to police departments, and social media sentiment;

Extend powers and community awareness of Atlanta Citizen Review Board (ACRB); and

Begin to evaluate policies, procedures, and partner organizations for least harm approach to reduce the likelihood of use of force long-term, including use of non-law enforcement officials for community crisis response and expansion of the pre-arrest diversion program.

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