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Atlanta review board outlines MOU with APD and warns of investigator vacancies, funding shortfall
Summary
The Atlanta Citizens Review Board presented a draft memorandum of understanding with the Atlanta Police Department covering officer-involved incidents and said it faces high vacancy rates and a FY26 funding gap.
At a City Council committee meeting, Mister Lee Reed of the Atlanta Citizens Review Board provided an update on a draft memorandum of understanding, or MOU, with the Atlanta Police Department on officer-involved shootings, deaths in custody, serious bodily injury and gun-discharge incidents.
Reed said the MOU would formalize steps for training, notifications, data sharing and a tiered issue-resolution process between the ACRB and APD. "APD will notify the ACRB on officer involved shootings, death in custody, serious bodily injury in custody, and gun discharge incidents occurrences within 48 hours via an email," Reed said, summarizing the notification commitments in the draft.
The MOU, Reed said, also calls for shared training, regular service-level meetings, and data points to be shared with the ACRB, including incident number, date of incident, OPS file number and the status of files with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation or the district attorney's office. Reed said the board had received the MOU and planned further discussion at the board’s next monthly meeting on May 8.
Reed also addressed staffing and budgetary constraints. The ACRB is recruiting for four investigative positions and Reed said the board operates with a roughly 44% vacancy rate across investigators and support staff. "For FY26, we requested $685,500 to fill all these vacancies," Reed said. He said the finance department has identified $72,000 so far.
Reed described an active caseload: about 60 regular cases pending and three officer-involved shooting cases currently under review. He said that adding investigators and raising salaries has already improved applicant quality but that the board still needs funding to hire and train new investigators and sustain timely investigations.
On oversight authority, Reed noted limits in the ordinance: the ACRB can recommend disciplinary penalties using a matrix but cannot compel the police chief to adopt disciplinary outcomes. He said the ordinance-prescribed process requires returning decisions and explanatory information from the police chief so the board can seek follow-up questions when appropriate.
Ending: Reed asked committee members and the public to help publicize investigator job openings and to monitor the MOU review; the board plans to return with a further update after the board’s May meeting.
