NewsHound
09-14-2008, 04:52 PM
Atlanta police Officer Jeffrey Crenshaw clashed with a young man during a trespassing call in southwest Atlanta. The 20-year-old died hours later at Grady Memorial Hospital.
Crenshaw has waited on desk duty for four years to find out whether the Fulton County District Attorneys Office will charge him with murder.
Recent headlines:
Atlanta and Fulton County news
Authorities ruled the mans death an accident and prosecutors decided not to charge him. Its not clear when Crenshaw was cleared, but nobody told the Police Department.
I think four years is a ridiculous amount of time for an officer to be on administrative assignment, said Atlanta police Maj. Lane Hagin, commander of the departments internal affairs unit.
Crenshaws case highlights what has been an ongoing communication problem between the agency that locks people up in Atlanta and the one that prosecutes them. The Fulton County District Attorneys Office has not been formally notifying the Atlanta Police Department that criminal investigations into officers have been resolved, leaving Crenshaw, and possibly others, to linger on administrative leave or desk duty longer than necessary, wasting taxpayer dollars.
When Atlanta police officers are being investigated for criminal allegations, they are either sent home until further notice or given desk duty, depending on the severity of the allegation, Hagin said.
Its not clear, however, how many officers other than Crenshaw have remained in limbo after the District Attorneys Office cleared them of criminal wrongdoing.
Atlanta police have refused to provide a list of officers who are subjects of criminal investigations. Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard did provide a list of the cases his office is investigating or has closed, but couldnt say when cases were closed.
Howard takes responsibility for the confusion and says hell fix the problem that there was no system in place to report the results of the finished investigations.
Until last month, Howards staffers casually and unofficially told police officials when investigations into officers were closed, Howard said.
Howard said he now, in response to inquiries by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, will begin a more formal notification process.
So thats why I said to them, Guys, we got to do something and officially communicate it directly to the police chief, Howard said. Because, otherwise, if you simply communicate it to an officer or to one department without some official communication, then you really got no way of knowing whether or not it ends up in the right place.
From now on, though, Howard said his office will send the Police Department a quarterly report, detailing the status of all the ongoing investigations involving Atlanta police officers. There are currently 14 open cases, according to documents provided by Howard.
Hopefully, this will eliminate whatever communication problem existed between the two departments, Howard said.
Hagin said he was not aware that the District Attorneys Office had been telling police staffers in meetings that certain cases were closed, but added that he has only headed the internal affairs unit since June.
The units former commander, Maj. Cerelyn C.J. Davis, was fired in June for her role in a botched sex crimes investigation involving the husband of an Atlanta police sergeant. She is appealing her termination and, through her attorney, did not respond to a request for an interview.
Hagin said he was pleased to hear of Howards policy change.
In addition, Howard also acknowledged that some of the cases took longer than he would have liked, but blamed the delays on having too many cases and too few staffers.
Theres no need to mince words about it, Howard said. We need help.
The public integrity unit, which investigates criminal allegations into law enforcement officers and public corruption in Fulton County, has three official members two investigators and one prosecutor and one attorney who is on loan, Howard said.
In 2007, the prosecutors had an 88-case average, which is more than four times the 20-case average recommended by the American Bar Association, Howard said.
The unit currently has 149 cases, Howard said.
Source Atlanta Journal-Constitution , 9/9/2008
Crenshaw has waited on desk duty for four years to find out whether the Fulton County District Attorneys Office will charge him with murder.
Recent headlines:
Atlanta and Fulton County news
Authorities ruled the mans death an accident and prosecutors decided not to charge him. Its not clear when Crenshaw was cleared, but nobody told the Police Department.
I think four years is a ridiculous amount of time for an officer to be on administrative assignment, said Atlanta police Maj. Lane Hagin, commander of the departments internal affairs unit.
Crenshaws case highlights what has been an ongoing communication problem between the agency that locks people up in Atlanta and the one that prosecutes them. The Fulton County District Attorneys Office has not been formally notifying the Atlanta Police Department that criminal investigations into officers have been resolved, leaving Crenshaw, and possibly others, to linger on administrative leave or desk duty longer than necessary, wasting taxpayer dollars.
When Atlanta police officers are being investigated for criminal allegations, they are either sent home until further notice or given desk duty, depending on the severity of the allegation, Hagin said.
Its not clear, however, how many officers other than Crenshaw have remained in limbo after the District Attorneys Office cleared them of criminal wrongdoing.
Atlanta police have refused to provide a list of officers who are subjects of criminal investigations. Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard did provide a list of the cases his office is investigating or has closed, but couldnt say when cases were closed.
Howard takes responsibility for the confusion and says hell fix the problem that there was no system in place to report the results of the finished investigations.
Until last month, Howards staffers casually and unofficially told police officials when investigations into officers were closed, Howard said.
Howard said he now, in response to inquiries by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, will begin a more formal notification process.
So thats why I said to them, Guys, we got to do something and officially communicate it directly to the police chief, Howard said. Because, otherwise, if you simply communicate it to an officer or to one department without some official communication, then you really got no way of knowing whether or not it ends up in the right place.
From now on, though, Howard said his office will send the Police Department a quarterly report, detailing the status of all the ongoing investigations involving Atlanta police officers. There are currently 14 open cases, according to documents provided by Howard.
Hopefully, this will eliminate whatever communication problem existed between the two departments, Howard said.
Hagin said he was not aware that the District Attorneys Office had been telling police staffers in meetings that certain cases were closed, but added that he has only headed the internal affairs unit since June.
The units former commander, Maj. Cerelyn C.J. Davis, was fired in June for her role in a botched sex crimes investigation involving the husband of an Atlanta police sergeant. She is appealing her termination and, through her attorney, did not respond to a request for an interview.
Hagin said he was pleased to hear of Howards policy change.
In addition, Howard also acknowledged that some of the cases took longer than he would have liked, but blamed the delays on having too many cases and too few staffers.
Theres no need to mince words about it, Howard said. We need help.
The public integrity unit, which investigates criminal allegations into law enforcement officers and public corruption in Fulton County, has three official members two investigators and one prosecutor and one attorney who is on loan, Howard said.
In 2007, the prosecutors had an 88-case average, which is more than four times the 20-case average recommended by the American Bar Association, Howard said.
The unit currently has 149 cases, Howard said.
Source Atlanta Journal-Constitution , 9/9/2008