Various CEOs and board members of prominent Atlanta businesses received letters this week from a radical organization — Color of Change — which attacks the Atlanta Police Foundation and asks that they stop financially supporting the organization’s police support role.
InsiderAdvantage obtained a copy of the letters signed by Scott Roberts, who identifies himself as Color Of Change’s Senior Criminal Justice Campaign Director. It claims that Color Of Change is the nation’s largest online “racial justice organization” representing over 2 million members nationwide and over 7 million people “who have taken action with us this year.”
Roberts writes that he is “deeply concerned with (the corporate) contributions to the Atlanta Police Foundation in the aftermath of riots and looting in Atlanta.” He criticizes the foundation “which recently paid $500 bonuses for officers after the police killing of Rayshard Brooks — and how this support is in direct opposition to your company’s commitment to improve the quality of life in the communities we serve through the allocation of financial and human resources.”
Roberts writes that the “Atlanta Police Foundation props up and provides cover for an overfunded, over-militarized police force and the harm they cause black Georgians. As we have seen in Atlanta, Minneapolis, Los Angeles and across the country, police foundations directly support the continued militarization of police. Beyond its disturbing choice to reward absentee cops, the Atlanta Police Foundation funds a citywide network of over 12,000 surveillance cameras and license plate readers — equipment that has only expanded the round-the-clock monitoring of black Atlantans.”
The Police Foundation responds
Dave Wilkinson, President & CEO of the Atlanta Police Foundation, responded to Roberts through a letter also obtained by InsiderAdvantage. Wilkinson writes, “I’m afraid that your description of our organization and the impact of our programs is inaccurate, wrong-headed, and unfair. We wish you had reached out to us in advance to discuss your concerns.”
In his letter Wilkinson explains that the Atlanta Police Foundation was founded 17 years ago with the support of then-Mayor Shirley Franklin. “Her mandate: be an independent advocate for public safety, offering candid criticism, constructive ideas and support to improve and reform public safety in Atlanta.”
“Our mission,” Wilkinson says, “has never been about purchasing equipment – especially military-like equipment for the police department. Fully 80 percent of our programs and our funding goes to programs and initiatives designed to build connections between APD and the neighborhoods and residents of our city.”
Wilkinson went on to state, “Since our founding, every Atlanta mayor and chief of police could rightly say that the Atlanta Police Foundation was a consistent advocate for police reform in operations, training, and community relationship-building. In fact, it would not be an overstatement to say that we more than occasionally hector our public sector partners more than they appreciate.
“Our oft-stated goal is to bring the rigor and discipline of the private sector to the essential work of improving public safety.”
What the Foundation Pays For
Addressing some of the allegations Roberts makes in the letters to CEOs, Wilkinson writes, “APF’s equipment purchases are minimal. Our Board rightly sees equipment purchases as a taxpayer obligation. In 2020, we did, however, purchase decontamination services, PPE for officers, and meals for officers who could not eat at restaurants due to pandemic-related closures. Rioting that occurred on the fringe of the early days of the social justice protests resulted in the destruction of some 25 police patrol cars and dozens of police bicycles. APF did pay to replace that equipment, the absence of which would have diminished law enforcement capacity.
“APF does not pay police officers. APD only recently stemmed attrition rates and the one-time $500 bonus was designed to show appreciation to officers for their 12-hour day/7-day per week deployments during the first couple weeks of the social justice protests, which came after three months of challenging operations due to the pandemic. The City and Command Staff approved, and officers were informed of the bonus before the shooting of Rayshard Brooks. The Brooks shooting understandably raised the visibility and scrutiny of this action.”
Wilkinson states that the APF has been a driving force behind criminal justice reform in Fulton County and in the City of Atlanta, and added that “APF strongly believes in the necessity of instituting reforms in how police departments hire, train and enculturate officers to their essential jobs of ensuring public safety. That has been our singular mission since our founding, though your letter reflects an ill-informed mischaracterization of our programs and their impact.”
He closed the letter by stating that when the Obama administration created its 21st Century Policing recommendations, APF worked with the Atlanta Police Department to institute reform. “APD was one of only 15 police departments of the more than 18,000 nationally to be lauded for its adoption of these recommendations. APF is a major reason why that happened.”
