Current Events > Atlanta Police sees a 48% increase in retirements and 18% resignations

(+) Yeah! (+)

EDIT: I misread that quote. That is those percentages are police departments ACROSS THE COUNTRY

https://www.yahoo.com/news/atlanta-police-ditching-department-slamming-110000541.html

Lt. Mark Cooper spent 26 years as an Atlanta police officer. His goal was to hit the 30-year mark, collect his pension, and go but he had to cut his journey short.

"Until last week, I was proud to tell everyone that I met that I work for the Atlanta Police Department," he said in his June 10 resignation letter obtained exclusively by the Washington Examiner.

His view of the department changed following the arrest of six Atlanta police officers after a video surfaced of them pulling two college students out of their car during a protest.

The incident went viral and only added to the distance and vitriol growing between law enforcement and the people they are paid to police. Cooper said the officers were following directives from higher-ups but were thrown under the bus by leadership who should have had their backs.

"The direction this department has taken is nothing more than sad," he wrote. "I was a long-time believer in our leadership, but I am now disappointed to find out just truly how poor it is."

Cooper said he had to go because he couldn't "represent a department that does not support the backbone of that very department. It's disheartening and it's demoralizing."

Officer Thomas A. Crowder also tendered his resignation.

Crowder, born and raised in Atlanta, had always dreamed of becoming a police officer, but his thoughts have soured.

"Today is my last day as a City of Atlanta employee and I would never have thought that I would be so happy to leave," he wrote in his June 17 farewell letter.

He added: "I can not see a reason that [an] officer who has been on the department less than 20 [years] would not leave. At this moment you guys have NO backing from your command staff. It is crazy that they could ask you to stay at work or even leave the precinct knowing that they are not going to have your back and is willing to fire you as soon as a citizen complains."

Cooper and Crowder's frustrations echo many police officers the Washington Examiner has heard from who are fed up being labeled public pariahs and lacking internal support of their superiors.

Like Atlanta, police morale across the country has dropped while retirements and resignations have hit all-time highs. A June survey of nearly 200 departments by the Police Executive Research Forum, a nonprofit Washington-based think tank, showed a 45% increase in the retirement rates and an 18% increase in resignations across the board in 2020-2021 compared to the previous year.

"We are in uncharted territory right now," PERF's Executive Director Chuck Wexler said. "Policing is being challenged in ways I haven't seen, ever."

Not only do police departments face challenges retaining officers, but they have also had a hard time pulling in new recruits.
The backlash against police officers saw a big uptick following the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died after a white police officer in Minneapolis knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes. After Floyd's death came the shootings of Breonna Taylor in Louisville, and Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta.

Outgoing Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who has come under intense scrutiny for not being tough enough on crime, has blamed Atlanta's soaring crime and 50% jump in murders on Republicans ending COVID-19 restrictions early and gun laws.

The mayor and governor's office did not return multiple requests for comment on the crisis from the Washington Examiner.

Silence is the status quo, Bill White, the CEO of the Buckhead City Committee, told the Washington Examiner.

White is behind the move to turn Buckhead, a wealthy enclave of Atlanta, into its own city.

He said the new city, which still faces a steep uphill climb legally, would give police officers the room they need to do their job without worrying about retribution.

"We've decided to stay [in Buckhead] and fight," White said. "And when we prevail and this gets on the ballot, we know it's going to sail through. There is no question about it. We will get crime under control. We love police officers here and want them not to be afraid to do their jobs."

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Ive been seeing it everywhere. Nobody wants to risk getting in trouble or be the next viral video. A computer officer transfer spot had 3 applicants two years ago. This year over 100 people applied.

A lot of stuff has changed in the past two years

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Good riddance

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The only bad thing is that our tax dollars would still be supporting those barnyard creatures. It's pretty telling what kind of cop you are if you're willing to stand with shitty law breaking cops just because they wear the same uniform. Civilians ask that you fucking improve the departments and axe the racists and abusers, so they decide to throw tantrums and quit. Good riddance.

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Nice

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Pretty much the same story.

https://www.wral.com/departures-of-police-officers-accelerated-during-a-year-of-protests/19722359/

Police departments face severe challenges in retaining and recruiting officers, according to new data outlining the steady exodus from an occupation that was the target of protests last year after several high-profile police killings.

We have lost about one-third of our staff to resignation and retirement, said Chief David Zack of the Asheville Police Department in North Carolina more than 80 officers out of a full complement of 238.

Certainly with the way that police have been portrayed and vilified in some cases, they have decided that it is not the life for them.

Those reductions in Ashville echo a nationwide trend.

A survey of about 200 police departments indicates that retirements were up by 45% and resignations by 18% in the period from April 2020 through March, when compared with the preceding 12 months.


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Cool

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Better retire and keep my pension before I get cancelled for the shit I've done!

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If we can't beat up people we don't want to work.

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Sounds like making room for more darkprinces who will defend every dirty cop out there.

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Fuck yeah. The less dirty piece of shit cops, the better. Fuck em.

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darkprince45 posted...

Ive been seeing it everywhere. Nobody wants to risk getting in trouble or be the next viral video.

Damn its almost like this wouldn't happen if they did do their job and not just kill people

Why does almost the entire police force not support body-cams? You'd think this would be a good thing to exonerate them, right?

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metralo posted...

Damn its almost like this wouldn't happen if they did do their job and not just kill people

But they do tho. Last recorded year 2019, there was 150 million unique police contacts with citizens across the United States. there was 1004 police shootings. 950ish(a little more) the suspects were armed with a firearm and/or deadly weapon. So no, the police arent just killing people out there. Not even close. Not even a full percent chance. You have a higher chance as a cop to be killed by a civilian(60 cops murdered so far in 2021 of around 600k cops)

and there more departments that have body cameras that dont. Opinion on body cameras have changed greatly over the years

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Ah yes defend cops murdering people by going hey it doesn't happen that often as though any amount of murder is okay.

Stay a terrible human because you'd rather defend murders than stand against them.

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I can only imagine who these missing posts belong to

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SevenTenths posted...

Ah yes defend cops murdering people by going hey it doesn't happen that often as though any amount of murder is okay.

Stay a terrible human because you'd rather defend murders than stand against them.

Your post is stupid. You twisted it to treat some narrative that Im defending murder. You should really try reading and using comprehension

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It's very fucking bad.

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darkprince45 posted...

You twisted it to treat some narrative that Im defending murder

Except there is no twist. You defended cops murdering citizens. By stating hey it doesn't happen that often and sometimes they murder citizens that are armed so thags even more okay to murder citizens.

Something you have done consistently for years. Instead of going, cops shouldn't murder citizens. The end.

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We need older cops retiring, especially in states where marijuana is a crime. We legitimately dont need that shit policing us. Those are the pull you over every three miles to search your car cops. This country is moving in a different direction and people are leaving those states in droves because they want to have a more professional police force that they can trust when they need help with something.

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SevenTenths posted...

Except there is no twist. You defended cops murdering citizens. By stating hey it doesn't happen that often and sometimes they murder citizens that are armed so thags even more okay to murder citizens.

Something you have done consistently for years. Instead of going, cops shouldn't murder citizens. The end.

lol. Again nobody is defending murder. As proven. 99.99 percent of the time, cops arent killing. Unfortunately, police are the chosen job to respond to domestic violence, armed shooters, etc.. through human nature. Something will happen eventually where cops might have to take a life. Cops are hired from the same pool you are a part of

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nQ1mo-ecOzI
Out of curiosity,
what should the cops who both just got shot have done here instead

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darkprince45 posted...

Ive been seeing it everywhere. Nobody wants to risk getting in trouble or be the next viral video. A computer officer transfer spot had 3 applicants two years ago. This year over 100 people applied.

A lot of stuff has changed in the past two years

If you aren't doing anything wrong you don't have anything to be afraid of.

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Guys, please stop feeding him

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ScazarMeltex posted...

If you aren't doing anything wrong you don't have anything to be afraid of.

Neither did the officer that saved the girl from being stabbed. Yet, lebron James decided to publicly Doxx him on Twitter saying youre next.

nobody wants to be involved in that. Seeing as they cant hire somebody either. This stems beyond doing something wrong

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They're afraid of being prosecuted for previous cases of police brutality

darkprince45 posted...

Neither did the officer that saved the girl from being stabbed. Yet, lebron James decided to publicly Doxx him on Twitter saying youre next.

nobody wants to be involved in that. Seeing as they cant hire somebody either. This stems beyond doing something wrong

Sure, that was a bad deal. We've reached that point though because of decades of cops doing shit and it getting covered up by blue wall of silence bullshit. No one trusts the police narrative because cops have been caught lying thousands of times.

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Sometimes I legitimately consider law enforcement, but then I remember they would force me to take drug tests and cut my hair.

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darkprince45 posted...

Again nobody is defending murder

He says as he goes on to continue to defend cops murdering citizens.

Tell me more about how because those cops were shot at it makes it okay to murder George floyd, daunte white, Andrew hill, Manuel Ellis, Rashard Brooks, Daniel prude, Breanna taylor, Tatiana jefferson, aura rosser, stephon Clark, botham Jean, Philando Castile, Alton sterling, Freddie gray, tanisha fonville, Eric garner, Michelle cusseaux, akai Gurley, Gabriella nevarez, tamir rice, Michael brown, tanisha Anderson's, and all the others that weren't armed, weren't threats and you continue to defend by trying to active the cops lives were at risk or there is any circumstance where it's okay to murder citizens. Where murdering 1000 people a year is justifiable to you.


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Hm.

I'd like to be positive and think it'd be because of "good cops" seeing the system for what it is and protesting in this way.

But when our own local connections to the force are saying otherwise, well, who am I to counter that?

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CyricZ posted...

I'd like to be positive and think it'd be because of "good cops" seeing the system for what it is and protesting in this way.

That would be worse, actually.

If the bad cops are quitting so they're not held accountable, that means fewer bad cops on the force. If the good cops are quitting out of protest, that means the ones that are left are the bad cops.

FortuneCookie posted...

that means the ones that are left are the bad cops.

Which would make it much more obvious of the need to tear down the system and redesign.

One counter I often hear against defunding the police is how it would punish "the good cops".

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If you defund the police, you won't be able to hire back all these guys who quit at the threat of being held accountable for wrongdoing.

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Good luck to the citizens of Atlanta and other major cities. When criminals run the show it never ends well.

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RamboCell29 posted...

Good luck to the citizens of Atlanta and other major cities. When criminals run the show it never ends well.

Criminals already do. Fortunately they are resigning now.

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I like this if it means I getting speed more often
I dont like this if it means people steal my shit

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"You're telling me we can't harass and murder black people with impunity any more?! I'm out."

Fuck 'em

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i guess its easy to believe what you want when you view it from your own bias and without looking at statistics

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RamboCell29 posted...

When criminals run the show it never ends well.

Boy do I have bad news.

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CyricZ posted...

Which would make it much more obvious of the need to tear down the system and redesign.

One counter I often hear against defunding the police is how it would punish "the good cops".

Easier said than done.

I haven't heard any substitutions for police as a unit beyond, "If you take away cops, you take away the motivation to commit crime," and other such sentiments. Anarchy is the least practical of all suggestions.

Don't get me wrong. They're in need of a mass overhaul. I don't think it's realistic to fire every cop and introduce a brand new form of law enforcement with a new title, new uniform, and new restrictions. I think we're more likely to get much needed new restrictions on the existing police force. Whatever it takes to hold the cops accountable.

But we're not going to get some Star Trek bullshit where we learn to "advance beyond" the need for law enforcement.

I still find it funny how you'll only really see the huge anti-police hate online.

Also kind of find it hilarious how a lot of places that tried defunding the police are pulling a 180 because their crime skyrocketed afterwards.

There's different ways to reform rather than stupidly hoping every cop resigns. And most reforms tend to need more funding, not less.

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I very much hope that the people who want less police get what they ask for in their own neighborhoods.

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Good. Get rid of the rot and rebuild from scratch.

ThePrinceFish posted...

I very much hope that the people who want less police get what they ask for in their own neighborhoods.

Buddy, I grew up in the suburbs, where cops and crime are both significantly less prevalent than inner cities.

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metallica846 posted...

Except that one time last year with that whole biggest protests in world history but other than that yeah. All online.

21 million people out of 328 million does not prove my statement wrong.

Like not even close lol

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Antifar posted...

Buddy, I grew up in the suburbs, where cops and crime are both significantly less prevalent than inner cities.

You growing up in a gated community does not prove him wrong. Just saying.

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There were no gates on my community. But there also weren't the cop patrols that are a common feature of the cities some assume have turned into hellholes because crime has risen to 2013 levels. The safest communities do not have the most cops. They have the most resources.

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God forbid their actions have consequences

Fuck the police

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