Atlanta Police Officers Hold Demonstration to Demand Better Wages
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed’s budget plan for the upcoming fiscal year currently doesn’t include pay raises for Atlanta Police officers. They haven’t gotten a raise since 2010. Over the weekend a small group of officers protested at City Hall.
Around two dozen officers and their families called the current salaries unacceptable, partly because City Council members’ salaries were raised by almost half. Sergeant Jim Longshore has been with the APD for over 16 years. He says he’s been tempted to leave and these salary issues make it hard to keep good officers.
“One of the reasons for our high turnover rate is because the salary increases do not come. People come and work for 3 or 4 years and realize this is all I’m going to make for the rest of my life and move on to someplace else”.
Officer Justin Brodnik has been with the APD for 9 years and says more officers need to speak out.
“Though I don’t like to admit it, the reality is, when you’re the City Council, Administration, and Mayor, why should things change? What, to appease the 20 officers that actually decided to show up today? If I was in their shoes, I’m not sure I’d be tempted to move in that direction because there’s no force. If we had a thousand officers out here showing that they cared, there might be more sway to do something.”
No city officials were present for the demonstration.
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