Members of the Senate Public Safety Committee held their second in a series of planned meetings Wednesday, and Chairman Sen. John Albers (R-Roswell) opened by reminding the members that while they are focusing on crime in Atlanta, “so goes Atlanta, so goes the state.” After two hours of testimony, Albers closed the meeting by reminding members “the best thing we can do is to support the men and women of law enforcement.”
But Albers also sent a strong closing message to the officials of Atlanta: “Get that jail turned over to Fulton County, and get it done now. Let’s make a meaningful difference to the people that live in these communities.”
Albers also pleaded with members of the judiciary to ensure that all judges are following the law established by Senate Bill 402, which requires secured bail on certain charges (and not allowing signature bonds).
This came after Jeff Hamling, of the Georgia Association of Professional Bondsman, testified that signature bonds are becoming a problem in some areas. According to Hamling, his association has been collecting data in Fulton County for over four years in regard to signature bonds — from 2017 to 2021. His records show that 29,711 defendants were released on unsecured bonds during that time period– including 36 defendants charged with murder and 101 charged with rape.
He said they are seeing a high number of failure to appear incidences among those released — hitting a high of 34.5 percent in 2018. The number dropped significantly in 2020, he said, but this was a result of a large number of open cases because of COVID-19.
Hamling said his study shows that a number of judges are not enforcing SB 402, sponsored by Sen. Randy Robertson (R-Cataula), and agreed to provide the names of those judges to the committee.
At the close of the meeting, Albers asked Judge Christopher Brasher, Chief Superior Court Judge of Fulton County, to help ensure the law is followed.
“We have a list of these judges not following the law, please police yourselves,” Albers said. “We will give you a month, then we will be forced to start publishing names.”
Brasher pledged to work with all judges in his circuit on this issue.
The committee also heard from Atlanta Police Chief Rodney Bryant, who said the department has been working to address crime rates, and has seen some success as a result of new partnerships formed and an aggressive crime fight plan that was implemented in May.
“Since then, we have seen murder rates drop 63 percent since this time last year, and rape incidences drop 108 percent over the past year,” said Bryant. “We still have a long way to go, but we are seeing the numbers go down.”
Bryant also said his department has been successful in recruiting new officers to the force lately. While the department has an authorized strength of 2,042 officers, they currently have 1,711 –which includes 85 recruits currently going through the academy or waiting to begin the training.
