Atlanta police officers air concerns during meeting with Mayor Andre Dickens
ATLANTA - One of the biggest challenges facing brand new Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens is overhauling the Atlanta Police Department and the required crime-fighting effort.
He has promised an unfiltered conversation with officers — and hundreds so far have met with him — to discuss what they need to perform their jobs.
The mayor got surprised by one issue emphasized over and over: the condition of the police vehicles.
FOX 5 Atlanta has previously reported how cops describe their city cars.
They say the fleet is filthy. The reason they point to is the loss of a car wash vendor city hall hired to wash cruisers.
"Yeah, they talked about the condition of the cars," the mayor said. "Think about it, those cars are on the road 24 hours a day."
Some frustrated officers have spent their own dollars to do the clean-up. And they say that makes no sense.
A quick jolt to police morale could be to reactivate the car wash option and do it quickly.
And that appears to be in the works with officials at city hall cutting red tape to expedite a new wash vendor.