REPORT CHARGES MISCONDUCT AT ATLANTA POLICE DEPARTMENT

Atlanta police drug investigators would often
bend and break the rules, lie to get search
warrants and work extra jobs when they were on
city time, according to a report by a police oversight panel.

Though the Citizen Review Board report was
focused on events before, during and after a
botched raid that left an elderly woman shot dead
in 2006, the CRB report released Monday said the
Atlanta Police Department would ignore instances
of abuse and unofficially had established arrest
quotas -- at least nine arrests and two search warrants a month.

What is disturbing about the misconduct =85 [of]
both indicted and unindicted officers is that the
system did not detect them earlier,=94 the report
said. =93The patterns of misconduct were
longstanding, repetitive and ongoing. The
misconduct cannot be characterized as isolated incidents.=94

The report also said two officers still on the
force should be fired for lying in reports and to get search warrants.

The city continued to employ two of these
officers,=94 according to the report. =93This is also
a symptom of internal oversight that is slow to
investigate and discipline, and this undermines
the ability to ensure that officers are
performing in a constitutional, legal and ethical fashion.=94

The Citizen Review Board was created in 2007
following a botched drug raid on the house of
Kathryn Johnston, and elderly woman shot dead in her living room.

The narcotics officers claimed an informant had
told them he bought crack cocaine from a man
named =93Sam=94 at 933 Neal St., Johnston's house,
and he had seen a kilogram of cocaine there hours earlier.

The secured a =93no knock=94 warrant based on that information.

It was nighttime when undercover officers broke
through the bars on Johnston's door and crashed
into her living room where the frightened
92-year-old was waiting, armed with a rusty
revolver. She got off one shot before she was mortally wounded in return
fire.

The officers have admitted they soon began trying
to cover up their mistakes. When no drugs were
found, the officers planted drugs taken in a previous bust.

Then they spent the next few days searching for
informant, Alexis White, because they wanted to back up their story.

Eventually, three officers =AD Arthur Tessler,
Gregg Junnier and Jason R. Smith -- pleaded
guilty and were sentenced to federal prison for
conspiring to violate Johnston's civil rights.
Last June, a fourth officer, former Sgt. Wilbert
Stallings, also pleaded guilty to conspiring to
violate Johnson's civil rights, and was sentenced
to 18 months in federal prison. A fifth officer
caught up in the FBI investigation, Daniel Betts,
pleaded guilty to taking payments from businesses
in exchange for extra police vigilance and was sentenced to probation.

It was after Tessler pleaded guilty on Oct. 30,
2008, that the FBI turned over its files to APD
for an internal investigation. That internal
investigation is still open, which means the FBI
report is not available to the public. APD
spokesman Sgt. Carl Davenport said the internal
investigation should be completed soon.

The board originally agreed to delay the release
of its report until the APD internal
investigation was completed, but Beamud said it
looked like it would be at least several months
more before the police department would release its findings.

We were hoping the police would have an
opportunity to complete this investigation before
we put it out,=94 Beamud said. =93They originally
stated it would be ready in January.=94

The police department declined, however, to
comment Monday on the report's findings.

I don't know that they have fixed the problems,=94
board chairwoman Joy Morrissey said. =93I would
hope that they have made substantial policy
changes so that something like this never happens again.=94

The CRB review was of three areas: the
culpability of individual officers, the culture
of second jobs and arrest quotas.

The report said undercover agents padded vouchers
for drug money to give to informants to buy gas
and food. The review also found officers took
money from businesses in exchange for additional
protection from officers on duty. Officers also
worked extra jobs during the times they were on the clock for the city.

The CRB did not find direct evidence of arrest
quotas for police officers. However, the report
stated that APD's policy of tracking numbers in
drug arrests may have played a role.

"The count of drug arrests creates significant
problems,=94 said Cristina Beamud, executive
director of the CRB. =93Frequently, it leads to arbitrary enforcement.=94

She said the review found APD had =93a system of
discipline that is slow and not terribly analytical.=94

Meanwhile, a federal lawsuit brought by
Johnston's family against the city and APD is pending.