Good afternoon.

I am Ladina Bolton, your Super District 7 Commissioner and Deputy Presiding Officer.

Also, the chair of the ERPS Committee, Employee Relations and Public Safety.

We have an update to our committee members.

We now serving now on this committee with me is Commissioner Nicole Masaya, but also Commissioner Marita Davis Johnson, and we want to say welcome to Commissioner Masaya.

So we're going to go ahead and jump right into our agenda.

Luckily, it isn't too exhaustive, but beginning with item 2026-0420, these are our minutes for the February 17th meeting.

Had you had an opportunity to review the minutes?

Not yet being new to the committee, and in the absence of Commissioner Davis Johnson, who is attending to family responsibilities and emergency, and our prayers are with her.

Okay, and I second that motion for a deferral for two weeks.

All right.

All in favor?

Aye.

Motion carries for deferral.

Jumping into our previously heard items.

We're actually going to move this item for animal enforcement services toward the end.

I know Commissioner Long Spears wanted to be present for that, so we're going to give her a little bit of time.

Um no, we didn't we don't have to for committee.

It's fine.

So we'll come back to that.

I know we have our guests from Lifeline, if that's okay with you.

So we're going to move forward to item 2026 027 to all commission districts.

This is a statewide contract number 999 SPD, SPD 000172-006, integrated security and surveillance products and services for use by the Department of Facilities Management.

Consists of purchasing from the competitively let statewide contract number that was previously read to purchase indoor and outdoor cameras with sensors for the video surveillance security system awarded to convergent technologies amount not to exceed 146,741 dollars and forty cents.

Uh-oh, I don't think we can hear you.

Good afternoon, Commissioners.

Okay, agenda item 0272 is regarding the security cameras.

And then we had several uh offices for the state of Georgia.

So the security cameras will serve the entire 35,000 square foot of both indoor and outdoor, with the higher end cameras being utilized in the UCO or the utility customer operations, and that's because they accept money there and require the enhanced surveillance.

Um we were able to obtain a portion of these cameras from our IT department, so that's gonna necessitate that a portion of this fee will be used for restocking those to the IT, plus the ones additional we need to purchase.

Okay, and I was trying to go back and look at the full report.

Did you say this was for 48?

Is it 4830 Memorial Drive?

It's for uh 4572 Memorial Drive.

4572.

And that shopping center just outside of 285.

Okay.

A memorial drive.

Did you have something, Commissioner Masaya?

No questions at all, Madam Chair.

Thank you.

Any questions from Commissioner Patrick or Commissioner Terry regarding this contract?

Okay, seeing no questions or comments from commissioners.

Do we have a motion for this item?

Motion to approve agenda item ending in 0272.

Second, all in favor, aye.

Motion carries recommendation for approval.

Thank you.

Absolutely.

All right, moving down to new agenda items.

First item is under public safety.

This is item 2026-0459, all commission districts to approve the usage of SPLOST 1 funds under category 2H for a public safety training facility and the amount of $500,000 to evaluate and propose the most appropriate location for a public safety training facility.

How are you doing?

Director.

How are you doing, Commissioner?

Wonderful.

To all the commissioners.

It is as you stated, Commissioner.

This is using SPLOSS 1 funds that were allocated for the planning of a joint training center.

And so we're at the point where we're ready to move forward.

This would be basically a feasibility study, uh site location.

Also take a look at the uh current two locations uh used by fire and PD to decide how best to place those uh props, those training needs on the same location.

Obviously, the easier ones are uh determining how big of a classroom space we need.

But there's very specific uh items as you can imagine when it comes to a training center.

And this would be an up to amount for the feasibility study.

Yes, ma'am.

Okay and planning.

They would take a look.

What we would do is uh have a scope of work where they would take a look at uh the current training centers that we have.

Also some of the regional uh training centers, uh Cobb and Gwynet have built some recently that are uh relatively new and and I think would be ideal uh for uh departments of our size okay, and just to iterate publicly under um where it says type of work being requested, we're looking for them to propose construction and design architectural building and renovation and assessment.

Is that correct?

Yes, Commissioner, because what what we had talked about is uh the possibility of them bringing forth uh as many as three options, okay.

Uh, which would be then possibly maintaining some of our current space, uh, the possibility of uh building something um completely new uh for both once again police and fire.

Uh so we're we're gonna be asking them for options as well, not just one uh straightforward uh proposal.

And have we identified an expert in the industry that has the means to do the study, or is that a part of what we will be soliciting for?

The existing contractors that facilities has are on call AE firms, their number of them have experience in public safety.

So we'll go to two or three of those with the same scope as in the price schedules and budgets and work out the final scope.

Okay.

Any questions from committee members, Commissioner uh Masaya?

Thank you so much.

First, I'm gonna start by saying I I think it's fantastic, and I really do appreciate such competent individuals in the roles and fulfilling the responsibilities to the Cab County.

I'll tell you as a resident and as a commissioner, it makes me feel safe just seeing the three of you standing there, knowing what you stand for, knowing the work that you put in, knowing your commitment to our constituents, it really does.

Um with that being said, um I also uh notice that we have the the price tag uh essentially is you know at a half a mil.

And so um is that what we're thinking is gonna be sufficient to cover everything that's necessary to make suggestions as it relates to the potential uh repurposing or um renovating an established um building or building another one?

I mean, is that gonna be sufficient to get everything that we need to get done?

And then um do we have a specific time frame?

So let me break that down, maybe three answers.

The time frame would typically be six to nine months.

It's not intended to be all the answers we need.

It's as director fulham said, it's look at your existing conditions, your future needs, where you're at now, where you might be, identify those options and potential locations to set the groundwork for the next phase.

So this is just would be the first phase of conceptual schematic planning for future needs and where they might be located.

Okay.

All right, well, that's my questions.

I yield back to you, Madam Chair.

Thank you.

Anything from Commissioner Patrick or Commissioner Terry, go ahead.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

So it looks like y'all will be focusing first on the properties that we sort of already have control over Camp Circle, George Luther, and Warren Road.

So I guess it was the top three.

But you're gonna look at other locations that we own, or are you also looking at potential properties that we would acquire?

Both, Commissioner.

Both.

And do you how many acres do you you estimate is going to be needed?

It's going to be a joint facility, right?

Is that what you're looking for?

Yes, Commissioner.

Well, that's one option.

So one option would be placing everything, you know, contiguously on a single piece of property.

But uh we would ask them to look at the possibility of placing some of those larger props.

The first one that comes to mind is like the driving course.

I mean that's that's a takes a lot of uh driving course.

And so something like that might be able to be placed somewhere else uh as mentioned earlier in some of the conversations.

We know in DeCap County, uh we're we're in some ways running out of land, so it may be that we have to look at uh options of having certain props at a different location.

But that's what the consultant would do for us.

Okay, thank you.

Any other questions or comments from commissioners?

Go ahead, Commissioner McBrickly.

Um thank you, madam chair.

Um just wanting to see an opportunity of what opportunity would present itself for the administration.

Well, you're I'm sure already engaged and involved, but um for the commissioners to um weigh in, if you will, or make suggestions in terms of uh potential locations.

I mean, just um in earnest thinking about um as you mentioned, some of the um limitations we have in terms of property, um thinking about if we're talking about training facility potential shooting range, right?

And we're talking about driving ranges and you know, um some of the the potential noise factors, even though I'm sure we will do everything to mitigate it as possible, but looking at some of the low industrial areas that we have um in the county and particularly in district three that we have, right?

And be able to have um in some of our areas where we might have a little more challenges near the pilot um in terms of you know um uh crime, but you know, at its proximity right off of 285, and you know, just thinking so as you guys are uh are sharing, um I'm sharing in the vision and you know what we might be able to do in terms of purchase renovation and perfect locale where you have um everything you need not so much spread out because I could imagine it may create um a bit of a challenge if there you know areas here there and everywhere.

But um wanting to know how much you know uh we might have an opportunity to weigh in and be able to give input.

Yeah, so yeah, Commissioner, if first of all, you all would send your ideas to us.

Yeah, uh, but also I could see where the consultant would come back to ERPS uh not with just a final product, but maybe you know have uh points along the way where we do report out.

Okay, that's great.

Yep to you, Madam Chair, thank you.

Absolutely.

And um just for record, can you share the need why we anticipate a need for a new public safety facility, maybe what currently we're using, how old that facility is, or whether there has been renovations, just give context to the community for the request.

Yes, and if you don't mind, Commissioner, I do have the police and fire chief here who could speak very specifically to each one of their locations, are prepared to do so.

Thank you, sir.

So the point is good question.

Uh speak to your current location.

Yes, so uh and the need is gonna come up again in a few minutes on another agenda item specifically for the police department.

Uh and I know that you've visited our training academy and facility.

I'm sure all of you have.

Uh it's a 1960s school building uh where we share with our not only our East Precinct, but our police training academy and in service for all officers.

So we make the best use of what we've got, but given the times, the modernization of all of law enforcement, the competitiveness across the metro Atlanta area, this is way, way, way overdue.

We've looked at Cobb County, Gwinnett County, City of Atlanta.

Uh, and in order to compete as a premier agency, we need premier training facilities to uh put out the best police force that we can.

Wonderful.

Thank you, sir.

Chief Carter.

Hey, good afternoon, everyone.

Um, as far as our training facility, it is the Warren Road location.

Uh that Academy was built in 1973.

Um the burn building that was initially there, it was um condemned in uh 2003 is when we and then we wound up getting a new burn building.

Uh that burn building has been there since uh 2006, and we've had a few renovations, some splash funds that were used to do some classroom space that we did in 2000.

Awesome.

So community, just in case you didn't hear that, our public safety partners have been supporting us in condemned 1900s buildings.

So now we have to update them to the 21st century.

All right, thank you, sirs.

We appreciate your discussions on that item.

So at this time, do we have a motion for 0459?

Gladly motion to approve 0459.

Second, all in favor.

Aye.

Congratulations.

Motion carries recommendation for approval.

All right.

So moving down to item 2026-0460.

This is all commission districts to approve the usage of SPLOST 1 and SPLOS 2 funding to make needed repairs to East Precinct and the police training facility by the amount of $3 million $19,530.

Is that an amount not to exceed?

Am I reading this incorrectly?

That is.

Okay.

All right.

Again, thank you, Commissioners.

So a few weeks ago you approved $2 million around numbers for the new roof at Bruce Street and the new HVAC units.

So this continues with multiple on-call vendors again that are under contract with facilities for asbestos removal, wiring upgrades, restroom renovations, the interior of the building, if you will.

Multiple vendors across the three million not to exceed of the estimates we have.

Okay.

So it looks like the 2.5 will be coming out of SPLOS 2 and about 518,000 plus SPLOSS 1, and those were the repairs and replacements you were just speaking to.

Okay.

Any questions or comments from committee members?

Commissioner Masaya.

Thank you so much.

Uh Madam Chair.

Just wondering whether or not we um if this item has come out of audit based on the amount.

It wouldn't be all that was contracts.

The so you can answer that, but I believe the 2.5 was already approved.

Is this an addition of the 500,000?

No, that this, if I may, this is a total of three million dollars.

Okay.

New funding or 3 million 19, but these are going to be multiple contracts.

What we'll be doing doing is using our various on-call contracts to do this work.

So that's probably why it wasn't sent audit.

Okay.

Well he's 500,000 and spLOS one closes out the category we had for police facilities.

And Splosh 2 just roll that into public safety.

That's probably using two buckets.

All right, fantastic.

Um, and just gonna make a suggestion in terms of fixing that wordage, uh, that verbiage before it comes instead of by an amount not to exceed would be uh great before it comes before the the board as a whole.

Um outside of that, as um my questions and concern.

Thank you so much.

I yield back to you, madam chair.

Okay.

Well, now I need an another point of curr clarity because you indicated the roof, and I know we approved that funding already.

So that is not underway with the original two million, so this is three million on top of that.

Okay, three on top of the five million investment.

Keep Bruce Street moving while we plan for the next generation.

Okay.

All right, and let me see.

And if I may, uh this is this is uh what we took was part of the old senior center to expand.

We had to do our fiscal agility.

We had under post standards, we had to build out that part of the gym there so we could do our physical agility testing when we're uh getting applicants as police officers.

So this takes over some of that space while uh fixing that space for the needs for training.

We're also using funds uh because East Precinct, as I stated earlier, is housed in the same location, and East Precinct needs a lot of attention and its facilities, its restrooms, the the front of the building.

Um, and and so a lot of this will be used for not only training but our East Precinct as well.

Okay, yes, and I know you need it, but um I would like for the 2.5.

Can you itemize that or it's very general?

It just says additional renovation funding.

We've we've got a detailed spreadsheet from Chuck Burleson and facilities of line item by line item.

Okay.

And who the who the vendors would be?

Okay, yes.

Can we see that please?

But I don't see any reason to delay this item considering we've been over and over the renovations needed.

Do we have a motion for this item?

I have no problem with um making a motion to approve, madam chair.

All right, and I second that motion to approve 0460.

All in favor.

Aye.

Congratulations.

Motion carries for recommendation of approval.

Moving on to item 2026-0311.

This is also all commissioned districts.

It's a statewide contract for guns, ammunition, and accessories used by the Department of Police Services.

Consists of purchasing from the competitively let statewide contract for the purchase and trade in of weapons awarded to Smyrna Police Distributors, Inc.

Amount not to exceed 150,000 or hold on, 150,074 and 50 cents.

Good afternoon again, Commissioners.

So back again.

Our firearms and the typical standard based on the firearms and the amount of rounds we use, the maintenance required for our uh pistols, uh, is typically a five to seven year lifespan.

Uh we start seeing in cost for uh maintenance repairs.

Uh but this is we've got an opportunity now to replace our aging duty firearms in transition to uh newer same model block nine millimeter handguns, and we've worked out uh a contract with um uh Glock and Dana, I believe it's uh I'm sorry, Smyrna police distributors uh to do a trade-in with the firearms that we have now.

So we'll receive credit for uh trading in the guns that we have, which uh significantly reduces the cost.

But these new firearms uh like I said before, they're the same model, same um uh caliber, but uh we're now upgrading to better modern optics.

And I've met with the Atlanta Police Department, I met with Gwynette Police Department, many other agencies that have already transitioned to these modern optics, and they have seen significantly higher uh scores on the firing range.

Um so it really helps us long term, reduces you know uh liability exposure when we have accurate shooters on the range.

These modern optics allow officers instead of uh focusing on old iron sites where you're closing one eye, looking down range, you can keep both eyes open with these modern optics, look through, still see your target, and still pay attention to your surroundings as well.

Oh any questions or comments, Commissioner Masaya?

Thank you so much, madam chair, and so thank you again for being with us, Chief Pedrick.

Just uh a quick question in terms of how many um duty firearms do you think that we'll have the opportunity to modernize um with the allocation of roughly the 150K?

Uh it's gonna be approximately 600 firearms.

All right.

And uh is that about what we need and where we're at.

Um because I am you know, as you know, big on ensuring that our law enforcement have what they need to stay protect it because they are here protecting us.

Um so I just wanted to make sure that that's gonna cover it and um that you know you're not being ultra conservative, uh, but making sure that we have um what we need for our officers.

So with that, I um accept that and I am good.

Thank you so much.

I yield back to you, madam chair.

Okay.

And to piggyback off of that, is this just for firearms that are in the field, or does that include any that might be in stock for the new cohort that's coming through the new class?

Okay, and any new officers.

Any questions or comments from Commissioner Patrick or Commissioner Terry?

Commissioner Patrick.

Uh uh, thank you, Madam Chair.

Quick question, Chief.

Um does body armor go through a life cycle?

And yes, sir.

When would you be coming back with a body armor request or yes sir?

We we typically budget for that annually because uh unlike the firearms where we're doing all at one time.

We do body armor uh as the years go.

So all of them expire at different times.

Gotcha.

And we just uh continuously buy the body armor on a replacement cycle.

Thank you, Chief.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

You have something else?

Just really briefly, and thank you for that.

Thank you so much, Commissioner Patrick, for that, because that's something that um I mentioned, and I'm looking forward to you presenting on some of our body armor needs.

So thank you for bringing that up.

I yield back to you, Madam Chair.

All right.

If there's nothing else from Commissioners, okay.

Can I have a motion for this item?

Motion to approve agenda item ending in 0311.

Second, all in favor.

Aye.

Motion carries recommendation for approval.

All right.

Well, we're gonna go ahead and jump back to the item that we skipped, which was under public safety, animal enforcement services on page one, item 2026-0284, all commission districts.

Change order number six to contract number one one-three two zero three nine.

For use by the Department of Public Safety, Animal Enforcement Services.

This contract consists of providing animal shelter operations and services.

This request seeks to ratify a previously provided contract term and rate increase.

This request also seeks to increase contract funds scope and term through December 31, 2027, awarded to Lifeline Animal Projects Inc.

amount not to exceed 22 million two hundred and forty-four thousand five hundred dollars.

Yes, good afternoon again, Commissioners.

And this item has come back from audit, uh, so you should have received that report.

But it is, as you stated, this is an extension of the contract uh with uh some enhancements, and those enhancements that were discussed at the last meeting are really focusing on the upstream uh prevention.

Uh as I heard during the last meeting, uh we really are stepping into space that no one else in the state and possibly the nation is doing uh by uh extending expanding the the spade and neutering.

Uh it's going to be expanded from the current uh 3600 surgeries uh to uh 4500 uh for dogs and then for cats from 1200 to 1500.

Uh there will be uh expanded hours uh for the outreach.

Uh there will be a mobile veterinary service uh twice a week in the in the high um needs areas.

Uh we're gonna target uh the outreach to those communities that we we know need the most need.

Uh we're expanding the the pet food bank and the community cat food uh pantry.

And so uh what you do have before you, and I think it is laid out uh, but as far as those expanded services, uh those would start in April of this year if this is approved and then carried throughout the entire year for next year.

Uh and then there are is also some uh new positions in there as well.

So uh once again, uh this is really expanding uh the services of what we're doing here in in the CAP.

So one thing that I wanted to confirm the annual base rate is the nine point nine million dollars a year.

I know this is for two years, so about 19 million, though we're asking for 22.

The um expansion of services, all the different things you just mentioned, the surgeries, the hours, mobile veterinary, pet food, uh, the new positions.

Will they be covered by that nine million, or is that what the additional three would be, three or four will be used for?

So commissioner, there for year one uh for this year, it's ten point eight million dollars, which includes the expanded services, and then for year two it'd be 11.3.

Uh so I believe are you looking at the um the audit report or so it's the um the full agenda item that gives the details in previous years it's I I'm assuming in previous years the base has been 9.9, and then you're asking for a 3% increase to cover 26 and then 27 as well.

So I see the 10.8 million and the 11.3 million, and just trying to get an understanding of the difference from traditionally 9.9 to I'm gonna I'm just gonna say in total about $3 million increase that's being requested.

Yes, Commissioner.

So the the increase for this year beyond the 9.9, which is just the operations of the uh animal shelter, the addition which takes it to the 10.867 is the uh enhanced services.

Okay, and so last year's operations, I believe, was at 8.7.

And that was just the operational services.

So if we were not doing the enhanced services, it would just be 9.9.

Okay.

And I'll tell you my only concern, well, not my only, one of my major concerns is us increasing funding every year, considering that we get folks from all over that partake in the services that the CAB County provides, and we just cannot afford to support the entire region.

So I would like us to for future to consider a more regional approach, especially considering Lifeline doesn't just service the CAP, it service other areas as well.

And for us to every year increase our investment in the programming, I don't think is fair when when we're servicing everybody unless we put some sort of stipulation that when folks come to healthy pets or whatever we're doing, they have to show residency or something.

Okay.

It looks like Zach, you want to speak to some of what I'm saying?

You make a very interesting point because our intent with these general fund dollars is to service DeCab County residents and their pets.

So we'll we'll take a look to see like the spay and neuter program, that would be for um well, all the stuff is really for DeCab County residents.

But if we need to put safeguards in place to ensure that we're not implementing programs that are going to be utilized out by others outside the area, we could we can take a look at that.

Okay.

And and we know that it's occurring you.

Well there's going to be some, and yeah, but but you know we we don't want to have an open door so that the spaying neutering reduces pet overpopulation in other counties and not here.

Our intent is to address the CAP County.

Okay.

So with the consideration for this increase, have there been discussions to put guardrails around it?

I would hate to just say yes without well, there have not, but that's something we can look at because understand that our programs go out to specific areas, you know, and whether it's mobile veterinary or when people come to our sites.

Um so it is very decab centric, but have we determined that people have to show ID and things like that?

I'm not sure about that.

I'll double check that.

Yeah.

Okay.

Um, oh, did you want to add something, Brooklyn?

I just I'm asking the question do they show ID?

Yeah.

Yes or no?

Yes.

The program the commissioner mentioned is not a good idea.

You can come to the microphone.

Thank you.

Uh the program that you mentioned, the healthy best program, that's not in this proposal.

All of these programs are strictly for DeCab County residents.

So they're either at the DeCab County shelter where people show ID or they have to prove identification to be able to get the additional spay neuter.

And it's a dramatic expansion of spay neuter, it's from a thousand up to six thousand a year, all for DeCab County residents.

Primarily, we're going to target 30032 and 3005 eight.

So Commissioner Messiah and District 7 as well.

Just to all district not all of District 7, but that Southern part.

Yes, ma'am.

Okay.

Did you have something, Commissioner Masaya?

I thought I saw somebody raise their hand.

Was that you, Commissioner Tood?

Okay.

Um, and also what I wanted a little bit more information on was the community engagement.

I spoke about the last time when commissioners want to do events and have the truck come out, do microchipping or uh whatever services are requested, we give funds out of our discretionary budgets, but if we're going to increase this budget by millions, I think there should be a commitment for commissioners who would like to do programming specifically in their district as opposed to us paying twice for the same services.

Absolutely, Commissioner.

And also we we want to encourage all of you to do that.

We'd like to partner with you to find additional venues for that mobile clinic.

So right now we have some set um areas in throughout the county that we go to.

This is going to double our capacity for that mobile clinic, and we're going to rely on you for helping us uh target areas and um and provide those services.

So yes, please ask any time.

And are we um setting aside a specific number that you would want to hold for commissioners or what would that look like?

Um I believe that we we can do that.

We're certainly open to that.

Right now we propose doubling the service uh and and we're looking to target those specific areas, uh, but that that gives us enough room to be able to um do some specific things for any particular event that you have in mind.

But we're we're really gonna look to you for helping us know where the need is and where we need to go.

Okay.

Since I haven't spoken to commissioners, I don't want to to commit to anything right now except that um well let me let me ask this because it there was a request.

Is this urgent?

Do we need does this need to be approved in the next month or so?

Yes, uh Madam Chair, I think it does need to be approved because quite frankly, lifeline has been operating as if you know we're going to be doing this.

So you have the 10 new kennels that came online a couple months ago that we're trying to get fully occupied and staffed.

The funding in the previous budget did not cover that, so that needs to cover uh that type of work.

And additionally, we have a very aggressive strategy for Spay and Neuter, and the sooner we get after it, the sooner we believe we're going to reduce pet overpopulation issues at the shelter.

Okay.

Well, this would be my request then for this item if we're gonna go ahead and make a decision on it.

If per year at least between the seven districts, there is I would say an appropriation of about a hundred thousand dollars.

Not each, not each.

I'm saying amongst the commissioners.

I know when I did an event, we spent about five to ten.

Um district two did about five to ten, and a couple of you guys did about the same.

So I'm just uh guesstimating so that we don't have to pull it from our district budgets.

If we're giving you an additional three million, then you you can set aside a hundred thousand for us to do district specific events.

I see your mind wondering what you think.

I'm trying to see how to make it work, but yeah, so the long and short is can we commit to ensuring that we have programs in each district and working with each district office to co-sponsor?

I think the simple answer to that is yes.

Okay, whether that cost 150,000 or 75,000 or whatever, I'm I'm sure we can make that work.

Okay, I just make sure we have we have a commitment.

I don't want to try to say we forgot, because some of us have signature events that we know are gonna happen each year.

Okay, excellent.

Yeah, absolutely.

Okay, are there commissioner Terry?

Okay.

Go ahead and go.

Well, no, it's gonna just uh I think that's a great idea.

And um if it's possible, I don't know maybe if Lifeline could just kind of give us a sense of with the community engagement staff, so two two full-time equivalents, so it's two full-time staffers, I guess would be the support to do the events that Commissioner Bolt was talking about.

So, what are the other expenses that would help make the event successful if we did district events?

I I mean it's gonna be a like a per event thing what you have in mind.

Um, but lifeline does bring its entire staff to be able to to do these events, so we have our marketing team and and all that.

The the the two full-time staff, we're talking about a really always not necessarily door-to-door in community engagement, but we really want to focus very heavily on these heavy need uh uh areas.

But the events that we do now, um we we pull our full staff.

So really it it will give you access to have that mobile clinic at your events, uh and there's no cost to you if you want to do an adoption event or anything like that.

We're happy to do that.

Anyway we to get more exposure for the animals is free.

Okay, yeah.

All right, well, trying to get some extra money to help us to do more events.

Oh, it's gonna cost a couple hundred thousand dollars, Commissioner.

No, I'm I'm just joking.

Really?

It's it's a part of it it's a part of the service.

We we want to partner with you uh to get get the word out about what's available for people who need the services and then also uh what's available for people who want to adopt a pet.

Okay.

All right.

Well, I would I'll have to do an event.

Okay.

Commissioner Messiah.

Thank you so much, Madam Chair.

Yeah, I think it's a great idea to be able to um expand the partnership and engagement in uh with other commissioners and in other districts.

Um, you know, particularly as the county is supporting this as a whole, and then also um, you know, we could tailor it specifically to some of the needs that are found within our our districts, our communities.

I can say that you know, within my community, for instance, in my district, education is um very much needed in addition to you know the spay and neuter, and then um, you know, the the food bank, right?

Um the pet food bank.

So there are particular services that are more needed, and uh more outreach and different type of outreach and engagement that may be more specific to some areas versus others in having the dialogues with the um the district commissioners and you know working collaboratively is I think impactful and helpful, and we can of course help um you know get more of the information out as well.

So great idea.

I appreciate you know my commissioner, my uh colleagues mentioning it and looking forward to continue to work with you guys.

Thank you.

I yield back to you, madam chair.

All right, was there anything you wanted to add?

Uh Commissioner Patrick.

Okay.

If there are no other questions or comments, do we have a motion for this item?

Uh my motion is to approve agenda item that ends in one second, just lost it just that quickly.

Uh the agenda item.

I'm sorry.

284.

2002 84.

My apologies.

Second, all in favor.

Aye.

Congratulations.

Recommendation for approval carries with that item.

Okay, so we have gone through all of our agenda items.

We do have one discussion remaining.

This is DKPD animal report.

Annual okay.

DKPD annual report 2025, and you guys should have a hard copy of that document in front of you.

All right, welcome back, Chief.

Thank you, ma'am.

Good afternoon again, Commissioners.

And thank you for the opportunity to share this.

This is something we need to do better at uh moving forward is sharing our annual reports and uh and what's occurred in previous years.

So we did have this annual report prepared, and I apologize.

I tried to get a PowerPoint ready, but it just didn't work.

This was built in something else, but we did have this report ready, so I'm happy to be able to share this with you.

Uh, in the beginning, you can see that uh the DeCap County Police Department's mission statement and motto is listed in.

I want to point that out because it's the first time in years that we've changed it.

Uh so we've updated our mission statement, so all of our officers are clear on the direction and the mission of the DeCap County Police Department.

And the DeCab County Police Department is committed to protecting life and property, maintaining public order, and enhancing the quality of life for all through professionalism, accountability, innovation, and community partnership.

And our motto serves the same purpose.

Uh our motto is honor, service, and partnership.

Uh, we know that we must serve honorably, and it is a shared responsibility and a partnership for us to accomplish our goals.

Uh, a little bit, you know, introduction, the table of contents, historical overview.

Uh, we think that is important, you know, sharing the history of our organization.

Uh, but on uh page four, you'll see the 2025 year in review.

And one of the things that I wanted to point out, and I know that you are all very familiar with is the launch of our real-time crime center, and uh how it allows for the enhanced safety of officers and the citizens, and that has been a big push.

I think it is state of the art.

Uh, we have tours lining up all the time from other agencies wanting to see and model their real-time crime centers after what we have put together.

We are still moving forward with a a strong staffing model.

Um we started off with uh one shift per day, we're up to two shifts per day, and by the end of the year, we will be 24-7 operations.

So we will be running three shifts uh 24 hours, seven days a week.

Um another thing that's important is a lot of our community engagement events.

We held two safety fairs last year, in addition to well over a hundred different uh events that we hosted, whether it was coffee with the cops, community engagement meetings, precinct meetings, majors night out, uh pizza with a cop, and other things.

Uh I also wanted to highlight our PAL unit, and I know you're very familiar, you know, even last month with the proclamation that our PAL unit received uh and the work that they're doing.

Uh and it's not only athletics, but it is really life skills and workshops for our youth.

Umganizational chart that's changed a little bit already.

We changed that this year.

We uh uh saw the need uh for better uh supervision, proper supervision and accountability, and a better service model delivery.

So if you look under the special services division in the middle of that organizational chart, you'll see a support services section and a special operations section.

We were able to separate those two and make it a support services division and a special operations division with proper leadership because their functions are vastly different, so it did not serve uh us well and mixing those together.

So we've been able to expand and grow operationally through our organization.

Uh and that organizational uh structure was changed this year.

Was also one of the recommendations from the Malden and Jenkins report.

Uh so we were able to complete that recommendation.

Departmental staffing, I know I've talked about it many times last year.

We ended up with a nine percent uh increase in staffing for our sworn officers, uh, and we are well on our way to see that growth rate continue.

Um I'm excited that uh later this month we should have an academy with 35 plus more recruits starting.

Um we have about 16 certified officers that are in process now as well.

Um if you look on page eight, uh I want to point out our internal affairs function, and it says that the internal affairs has four primary objectives protection of the public, protection of the employees, removal of unfit personnel, and correction of procedural issues.

Uh, that's important because I noticed that in and if you look at the different columns year over year, we had more complaints in 2025 uh than in previous years.

Um that was an intentional act, and it and many of the complaints were uh internally initiated from either co-workers or supervisors alike.

We are auditing ourselves, our supervisors are responsible for auditing body worn camera footage, regardless of complaints.

They have to look at uh pull random checks on body worn cameras, and when they see deficiencies, they are responsible for correcting them, and then we log those as complaints.

Uh so we are you know policing ourselves internally without asking for complaints.

We we seek it out.

But on top of this, one of the things we did at the end of the year last year is uh had internal affairs commander do an audit of you know our top complaints.

What are what are we doing wrong?

Where do we need to improve?

And all of our internal affairs investigators are visiting every roll call, every precinct, every watch, every division, and explaining to them because many of many of the things are are very minor infractions, rudeness, you know, uh professional image, not turning on your body worn camera, but we've identified our deficiencies and we're pointing it out to our department so that we can self-correct.

Um so that's one of the things that's it's been beneficial with looking into this and taking a deeper dive, not just collecting the complaints, but really looking at what's driving them.

Uh financially, uh, I know you we just finished the budget, so I know you're familiar with the the police department's budget.

Crime trend reports, I was excited.

Uh you know, um numbers, 91 homicides last year.

That's the first time in many, many, many years that we've been below 100 homicides in DeCab County.

The only increase that we saw within violent crime was aggravated assaults.

That's something that we're aware of.

We continue to work and we're working towards, but uh overall there was a reduction in both violent crime and property crime last year, and we want to keep those trends going.

Our clearance rates are are self-explanatory, that's how we clear our cases.

Uh one of the things I really want to uh uh highlight is the fact that if you look at the national average for homicides, uh the national average for clearing a homicide case is 52.3 percent.

Our detectives are clearing cases at a 76.9 percent clearance rate.

Uh granted, you know, that doesn't take away that homicide, but at least it gives many of the families closure in their difficult times when we were able to clear these cases and bring them to justice.

Um department activity trends.

Um we know that uh police presence prevents crimes.

We want to keep our our officers out, active and working.

Uh so we uh strategically track those, and we've been hitting the locations with our safety checks throughout the county.

If you look at traffic accident trends, 32,000 accidents last year, we're trying to reduce that.

Uh and by being out there and doing these safety checks, I think it helps us in the long term.

And also with those safety checks, um our traffic fatalities last year was one of our lowest with only 88 traffic fatalities, so we saw a decrease there as there as well.

And then the following pages kind of gives you an overview of the uniform division, our special services division, special operations and support services.

Um of the section highlights that they wanted to point out as division commanders, uh division some summaries for our criminal investigations, and it breaks down, you know, and this is for the public.

We're gonna have these in our precincts.

Anybody can grab one, look at them, it's gonna be posted on our website uh so that this information is is available for all to see and what each division is up to, what they're doing.

Umcial media, I'm not very good at, but our PIOs really work on that.

Uh but uh community engagement events.

This is some of the few pictures that we have from from many of the events we did last year.

And with that, I'll answer any questions you have.

Awesome.

Thank you, Chief.

And it looks like you guys are doing an amazing job.

Congratulations on all of your reductions.

I love Fort Thinking.

Director Fulham would tell you, I commend him on that all the time.

So you doing um I'm gonna say adapting your organizational chart to the needs of the community and the current um population and demographic of your different precincts and of the unit, just overall.

I think it's a great decision, something we have talked about doing with um our central staff as well, just reorganizing to make things more efficient so we can better serve the community.

All of that I think is amazing.

Before I ask my few questions, I want to see if committee members have questions, Commissioner Masaya.

Thank you so much, Madam Chair.

And um, in the vein of forward thinking, just realizing I think it's great that in certain areas um terms of the clearance rates that the Cab County is below the national average, but we do have a couple um particularly homicides, um rape and auto theft there are above the national average.

And so um do we have any thoughts in terms of what we can do to address that and to the extent that we need to continue the conversation offline?

Then of course I welcome that, but I just wanted to sort of put it at top of mind and see if there's anything just knee jerk um that you've thought of to address those particular um areas of crimes of clearance rates.

One of the uh contributing factors, I believe, and you know, in talking with the detectives, is even sometimes victim cooperation.

So what we've done different two years ago we started a um victim witness advocate program, they're civilians.

Um and this year we uh we started with four, we've doubled it now.

Uh I just met with the new ones last week.

So uh having the ability for for our victim witness advocates to talk to the victims and maybe get them to be more forthcoming with what is uh exactly taking place.

Um will help us with the information we need because sometimes our witnesses just don't want to share the information.

Um maybe they don't want you know, some of our officers are are a little bit more uh less sensitive than they should be.

So having someone else to talk to with a better background uh may open up those channels to help us get the information we need to close those cases.

Thank you for that, and I appreciate that that's an important point.

I know that um we have victims advocates in the court.

So are these particularly in conjunction with the court, or is this something separate uh and germane to our DeCATPD?

This is uh specific to the DeCAP police department, and you know we were we've always been very familiar with both the solicitor's office and the district attorney's office and their victim witness advocates, but what we noticed a couple of years ago was there was a gap because if your case does not make it to court, you don't have a victim witness advocate.

And not as you can see by our clearance rates, not all the cases make it to court.

So there was a big gap of victims not receiving services because their case never reached adjudication.

So now we have that at the at the case level versus the adjudication level.

Fantastic.

And you said there are two um victim um advocates right now.

We have eight.

Oh, eight, I'm sorry.

We went from four to uh last year to eight this year.

So uh four to eight.

And is that sufficient or is there we're gonna continue to grow?

Um you know, it was a new program as a matter of fact.

Last year in 2025, we received an award from the International Association of Chiefs of Police on our new victim witness advocate program.

Um so now we're doubling it and we're gonna grow as we're able to grow with the program.

All right.

And um, as you mentioned, we passed a new budget.

Um and uh just the ask was the uh need for additional uh advocates included in our um in the budget requirements.

Yes, ma'am.

Okay, so we've already got budgeting for the additional individuals that were looking forward to stepping in that role.

Fantastic.

That exhausts my questions.

Thank you again for your great work.

I yield back to you, uh Madam Chair.

Great job.

And I I heard you slip in that honor.

Congratulations.

Uh Commissioner Terry, did you have something?

Yes, thank you, Madam Chair.

Just a few quick things.

Um, so thank you, Chief Patrick, for doing the report and um and you know, presenting it and having lots of really great data because I think that's the first step towards transparency as you just you know tell what's going on.

And so kudos for doing the report um for mentioning the um internal affairs audit.

I mean, I think that's that's really um encouraging and I'm sure it was just good for the organization in general to have that that layer of review.

Um I love the photo of you shooting basketball.

I almost made it too.

You almost made it.

I'm sure you made one of them.

You see, I picked a little kid to play, I guess.

Um that's right.

Well, actually, I was looking for the dunk tank.

Um Zach said he wanted to get in the dunk tank uh for the kids, of course.

So maybe we'll get the two chiefs or all the chiefs in a dunk tank this year.

Um but um but your the community engagement is great.

Um I know um Miss Tate comes out to so many events, so just want to give her kudos.

Um the civ the community service aids, are they considered in the civilian um uh sort of uh the numbers on each precinct officers and then civilians?

Yes, sir.

Okay.

Um I might suggest you include a little page on the community service age aids if that's possible, just um, because it is, I think, an important program and it's something y'all are continuing, right?

Yes, sir.

As a matter of fact, I'm trying to grow it.

I want to see uh 40 uh this year total to have 10 per precinct.

Okay, absolutely.

Yeah, that's great.

And if we can just get the state law to change where they can just do a couple more things, um, then they would really be uh dynamic for sure.

Um and then the only other question I had was about the traffic fatalities.

Um fatalities as well.

Yes, would it be possible just to get a breakout of which ones were pedestrian versus traffic?

Yes, sir.

Um and then one thing that uh I wanted to talk with Zach and maybe Director Keeter about this um because there was the pedestrian fatality um over on North Decatur by the Sprouts, uh it was early morning, it was I think it was dark.

And just the other day I was driving by because I went to go get a tropical smoothie.

It was just like right there, and I realized that that intersection and then the other side of that development has almost no street lights.

And so I you know, I don't know all the details of what happened with that particular you know situation.

Um but I'm wondering if we could just have a little bit of uh overlap of where y'all are seeing pedestrian fatalities and maybe just a quick review from Transportation's act of you know what's what additional lighting help because it you know people are going to get MARTA early in the morning, you know.

Sometimes it is it is dark, especially you know in the winter time.

So just things that we can be proactive as you're you're out there you're seeing things that have happened that are awful.

My mind always goes to is there anything that we could have done, you know, um infrastructure or logistically that would have prevented that.

Yes, sir.

Okay, thank you.

Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thank you, sir.

And I just have a few questions, just two or three questions.

One is when it comes to the complaints, whether internal or informal informal, did you guys do include both civilian and sworn, or do you distinguish those separate one from another?

They're the same.

They're all included.

Okay.

And the only reason that I ask that, I I have gotten some emails.

Um, but what I have gathered from some of them, some of the civilians want some of the same benefits or opportunities as the sworn.

And I think maybe clarifying the distinction and level of responsibility could help with some of the concerns that may have been raised.

But um Yeah, no, no, that would be understandable.

I just wanted clarity on whether it included both civilian and sworn.

But for the victim and witness advocates, are they included in the number of civilian employees that you have?

Are they on civilian payroll?

Yes, ma'am.

Okay.

With that, one thing I would like us to consider potentially is the number of investigators that we have.

It has come up because we get so many emails with respect to the animal shelter.

And then more recently, cost of care and doing investigations for court held animals and all that kind of stuff.

Um, whether it needs to be budgeted to have additional investigators to help support that work.

I know the solicitors, I believe it was the solicitor's office indicated uh that they've hired more folks to help on their end with it, but maybe having a little bit more support on you guys' side could help them.

They're getting sort of a bottleneck, and that that could help streamline things a bit more.

Well, I'm making the suggestion, but I should have asked first, do you have anyone that does investigations for those um court cases for the court held animals at the shelter?

We specifically uh stick to criminal investigations involving animal cruelty.

Uh not so much on the court held uh animals that that's a completely different process that's not criminal as far as a state law violation.

Um but I know that there has been other discussions about partnering together with animal services and the police department and others to come up with a better um model for those investigations.

But currently when we get uh referrals for animal complaints that are a state law violation, there's not a specific detective.

All of our property crimes detectives are able to handle those, so it's geographically assigned based on the area where the animal complaint occurs, it will go to that precinct investigative unit for proper investigation.

Okay.

All right.

You wanted to add to that, Commissioner?

Well, I think also I think the solicitor was asking for more investigators, but I think maybe she was talking about the animal control.

Right.

That's their primary function is the code violations versus the state law violations.

I gotcha.

Okay.

So just getting a little bit of clarity on that.

Um, Commissioner Patrick, did you have any questions or comments regarding the year and review presentation from DKPD?

All right.

Yes, we are over our time.

Okay, so if there are no other questions or comments, this was a presentation, so we don't have anything to vote on.

Do we have a motion to adjourn?

So moved.

Second, all in favor, aye.