This blog (and an associated
website) was launched in early 2014 in response to the bombshell announcement
in November 2013 of the Braves planned move to Cobb County. Many veteran officers, along with then
Director of Public Safety Jack Forsythe, realized that CCPD as it then existed
would not have the needed personnel or equipment to support an MLB stadium
opening in 2017. The department was
losing officers at an unprecedented rate due to many factors including the move
away from a traditional pension in 2010, combined with many other local
agencies offering better benefits such as take home cars, shift differential,
and educational incentive not to mention better pay. Director Forsythe called it a crisis, fought
for what was desperately needed, got nowhere, and resigned in frustration at
the logjam that was county leadership at that time. We organized and found a voice at
Ducimus.
On February 4, 2014 around 0230 hours a young Pct 3 officer was shot on a traffic stop and the suspect fled in a vehicle. There were no cars available for arriving day shift officers to assist with the manhunt since all morning watch officers were still on the road hunting.
On April 29, 2014 some Pct 1 officers had to respond to the Fedex shooting on foot since once again, no one had assigned vehicles. These were real life public safety crises, not whinings of dissatisfied government employees. We got media coverage at BOC meetings, and the media on at least one occasion has taken note of the blog: https://www.ajc.com/news/cobb-chief-focus-community-policing-garners-both-praise-disdain/3ELR3KmAy97Qw4rSdpZwQM/
In the seven years since, county leadership has evolved and many of the changes that we needed have come to pass. All of us have benefitted from the collective efforts of those who made and bought T-shirts, attended and spoke at BOC meetings, rented billboards, and yes, made constructive comments on the blog. We now have an assigned vehicle program, shift differential, and educational incentive pay, as well as investigative pay, and a step and grade pay plan (although it is not perfect). We still have some concerns and there is still room for improvement, but we have come a long way since 2014.
When the blog was first set up, the decision was made to require approval of all comments before they were posted. This was a fine line for the volunteer admins who sometimes had to make the call between free speech versus giving a platform to haters. This wasn’t a big problem in the early years as most comments were united by the desire for better benefits. Posts by “anonymous” were the vast majority of the activity because as the blog headline says, “This site was created as a way for Cobb Police Officers to stay informed about what is going on in their department and speak their mind without fear of reprisal”. But over the last few months some of the posts have gotten more toxic, with anger against fellow officers, cliques, even some overt racism. The plank owners were consulted and the decision has been made to shut it down. Our unanimous feeling is that this blog has served its purpose but has run its course. No further comments will be posted. However, the site and previous comments back to inception will stay up. If we see the need to reactivate in the future we may do so but there would be stronger moderation against nonproductive bickering within the ranks. Anyone wanting to send feedback to the blog admins can submit comments which will be reviewed. Feel free to include your name if you wish, no comments will be published.
Stay safe and watch each others’ backs.
