GA ACLU Backs Plan to Downsize ACCPD
The Georgia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union is endorsing a budget proposal from Athens-Clarke County Commissioners Tim Denson and Mariah Parker, who are looking to reduce the size of the Athens-Clarke County Police Department by 50 percent over the next decade. Denson and Parker want $50,000 to fund a committee that would study a plan to downsize the ACCPD.
From the ACLU of Georgia…
The ACLU of Georgia sent a letter to the Athens-Clarke Mayor and Commissioners supporting the budget proposal that Commissioners Parker and Denson put forward, the best and most serious effort at tackling this problem currently on the table anywhere in our state. Policing is a deeply troubled American institution and one that has proven frustratingly resistant to reform. We need to fundamentally change the role of police in our society, and that role has to be smaller, more circumscribed, and less funded with taxpayer dollars.
The commissioners’ policy proposal budgets $50,000 to fund a committee to develop an implementation plan to shrink the size of the police force by 50 percent over 10 years, while investing the savings in social supports and more appropriate response measures to crises that do arise. The commissioners’ budget proposal will also:
deauthorize vacant officer positions
create a new co-responder unit
bring 911 dispatching under public control
create a new social work position in the Public Defender’s office