The Atlanta City Council approved a plan to spend more than $40 million on public safety equipment, including new apparatus for the Atlanta Fire Rescue Department.
A spokesman for Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens confirmed to The Center Square that the spending plan includes $19 million for the Atlanta Fire Rescue Department and $21 million for the Atlanta Police Department.
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The City of Atlanta has approved legislation to scan more than 115,000 petition signatures calling for a referendum on the Atlanta Public Safety Safety Training Center on Monday. After scanning the petitions, Atlanta will make them available to the public, but will not determine the validity of the signatures at this time.
Activists claimed to deliver 116,000 petition signatures on September 11, nearly doubling the 58,232 required to force a public vote on the future of the training center for law enforcement and first responders. However, a legal ruling briefly extended the petition deadline from August 21 to late October, before it was stayed by a higher court. Atlanta ultimately accepted the petitions, but said it would not begin processing them until it received guidance from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.
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Throughout the United States, it takes three times as many hours of training to become a nail technician, a barber, or a plumber as it does to become a police officer.
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Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens plans to use $4 million to develop “quick-delivery housing” for homeless people in the city.
Dickens issued an executive order directing the city’s chief financial officer to fund a new “Rapid Housing” initiative. The city plans to repurpose shipping containers that Georgia Emergency Management Agency used as temporary hospitals amid the COVID-19 pandemic and are now being decommissioned.
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Atlanta city leaders have signed off on the largest budget in the city’s history.
The $790 million fiscal 2024 general fund budget is a nearly 4.8% increase from the city’s $754.2 million adopted fiscal 2023 budget and a more than 7.8% increase from the nearly $732.7 million in fiscal 2022 expenditures.
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Georgia state and Atlanta officials criticized a violent protest in the city on Saturday; Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum said that some business’ windows were broken and a police car was set on fire, but said that no citizens or officers were injured.
“The City of Atlanta and the Atlanta Police Department will not tolerate this and we continue to protect the right to peacefully protest. We will not tolerate violence or property destruction,” Mayor Andre Dickens said in a Saturday press conference, according to 11Alive video.
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Atlanta Police Interim Chief Darin Schierbaum and Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens announced on Thursday that former City of Atlanta Chief Operating Officer Peter Aman would be the first ever chief Administrative Officer (CAO) of the Atlanta Police Department (APD).
“I created the Chief Administrative Officer position to ensure that the personnel of the Atlanta Police Department have the best tools and support as they fight crime and serve our community,” Mayor Dickens said.
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City of Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens announced on Wednesday that Atlanta, Georgia is one of 16 cities across North America that have a won bid to be a host city for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
“We have the pleasure of celebrating Atlanta’s selection as a host city of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, because of our strong, bipartisan public-private partnerships and many who have been working for years to put Georgia on the map since we hosted the 1996 Olympics,” Governor Brian P. Kemp said.
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The Buckhead Public Safety Task Force (Legislative Reference No. 22-R-3001) issued its final report on Friday, with recommendations and a plan to curb crime in the northernmost Atlanta district, wherein the city stated a new police precinct will open up in June.
“Task Force participants were able to hear from a broad spectrum of public safety stakeholders, and I look forward to seeing that expertise translated into a meaningful action plan,” said District 7 Council member Howard Shook.
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Staff for Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens and the Atlanta Police Department (APD) accused Buckhead City Committee leader Bill White of misinforming the public about alleged corruption and mismanagement practices within their agencies. White told The Georgia Star News on Friday that several APD sources feed him information and that those sources are reliable. White said he knows those sources’ identifies, but he will keep them anonymous.
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