Several members of the Dunwoody City Council pushed back on a request by Police Chief Billy Grogan to fund a street crimes unit using American Rescue Act Plan funds.
During a discussion regarding the request at the Feb. 12 meeting, Grogan said the unit would consist of three patrol officers and a sergeant who would focus on clandestine transactions and larger drug organizations operating in the city.
In a report to the council, Grogan outlined several drug arrests that demonstrated the need for a special unit to specifically handle street crimes.
“Two separate DEA investigations led to the arrest of the suspects and seizure of four kilos of cocaine and 90 pounds of methamphetamine,” the report said. “Our detectives worked with the U.S. Postal Inspectors to break up a significant illegal pill operation. In other investigations, 44 kilos of cocaine were recovered and 10 kilos of heroin.”
The $1 million expenditure would be funded with ARPA funds for 2024 and 2025 but would have to be folded into the police department budget in subsequent years, Grogan said.
Councilmen John Heneghan and Joe Seconder questioned the timing and the need for the unit, considering that the department still has six open positions in the patrol division and the recommendations of the recent BerryDunn study that listed the establishment of the unit as a medium priority.
“The main critical need in the BerryDunn study was putting cops on the street,” Heneghan said. “The report then goes into talking about the street crimes unit and it was a medium, non-urgent ask. I’m just trying to understand why we would not follow the BerryDunn report that you brought to us.”
Grogan downplayed the study’s recommendation, saying, “BerryDunn did a great job, but they are not in our department, and they don’t see what we see every single day.”
“I’m not going to belabor this, but I am seeing a big disagreement between what the BerryDunn reports and what you are asking,” Heneghan said.
Seconder also questioned the priorities of the ask versus the priorities outlined in the BerryDunn study and expressed concerns that the positions would not be funded after 2025.
“This is a two-year band aid because I would not support this now, and I’d rather look at the long-term fix,” he said.
Mayor Lynn Deutsch said the funds would have to be found in 2026.
“The positions wouldn’t end it two years, the funding would end, and we’ve got to fix that,” she said.
When Seconder repeated that he’d rather have the long-term solution worked out before committing to the street crimes unit, Deutsch said, “No, we’re not going to do that.”
The council did not act on the proposal but will discuss it as an action item at a later meeting.
In other action, the council:
- Commended seven volunteers for 100 hours of service to the city;
- Voted 6-1 to extend a moratorium on drug rehabilitation centers until August, with Rob Price voting against the extension.
- Discussed the purchase of two surveillance video trailers.
