The Johns Creek City Council held a work session on November 3, 2025, at 5:00 PM to discuss the Police Department's budget for FY2026. Chief Mitchell presented the department's priorities, which included funding for four unfunded officer positions, a command vehicle, and a drone program. The discussion covered crime statistics, response times, staffing challenges, and future planning. No formal votes were taken during the work session.
Thank you, Mayor. We are recording. I would like to call this meeting of our work session for the John Street City Council Order at 5 p.m. on November 3rd. Would you lead the pledge for us? Be happy to the flag in the United States of America. And to republic for which it stands one nation under God and the visible with labor standard justice. Mayor Shermarks. None. Thank you. Thank you. The first item under strategic priorities is the police budget presentation, and we have Chief Mitchell for presentation this evening. Oh, uh Mayor Council, thank you for this opportunity. Police department namely, and um I appreciate the chance to come in and speak and answer questions. So I'm open to any questions you may have about our uh FY26 budget presentation. Uh all right. Sorry, I was expecting a little bit more uh presentation, but I like succinct. That's good. Oh, I uh I can uh I can definitely uh present. That's great. That's great. Uh Chief, my biggest uh question I had, just uh you know, there's been discussion about you know just crime rates uh in the city. Uh can you go into that a little bit? Just are they up? Uh as as it relates to as it relates to our budget, our sole um our sole focus on the budget process uh was not just was not just the crime rates. Um as I shared in our budget memorandum, you know, some of our crime uh is up, our entering autos um were up, uh burglaries were down, uh so that's good to report. Um accidents were up. Um our thefts were up as well, but uh our our um uh felony crimes as it relates to uh violent crimes, those were down, which it's good to report as well. But um were up, some are down, um it's kind of an ebb and flow uh um uh for the year. So we focused on that. We focused on our special events and the number of special events uh uh as it relate as all in addition to our crime rates and our officer decision ratio. So there are a number of factors that went into uh the budget preparation other than just the uh the crime stats, if that makes sense. Yes, yes, sir. Um so obviously last year we set up the crime suppression unit. Yes, sir. Uh can you tell us a little bit more about how that's been going? Going well. Uh staffed in in June. Um the real-time information center with Intel detective there was staffed in June as well. Um in fact, I just sent a um uh I just got a strategic uh intel report for the month of uh of October uh from the uh from the unit um going well. Um they've made uh a lot of arrests. Um uh they've also I I would I would glad to report um on as far as our entering autos, they really made a focus on that over the summer and were able to uh effective arrest and clear about um I want to say it was 10 to 15, I can't own the specific number, but 10 to 15 are in autos and arrested a suspect um out of the Atlanta area for that. Um so uh it's working. They're always out here. Um again, blue lights stop crime, and uh they really are focused on our areas where we have some trends and patterns on criminal activity. So I think the guys uh led by Sergeant uh Montero, they're doing a really good job. And what did you say trends and patterns? Trends and okay, well that's great. Um I've got several. Uh so regarding emergency calls, and we've had a couple of things that have been you know brought some serious attention lately.