State House committee holds first hearing on Atlanta crime

ATLANTA - Members of the Georgia House Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee held their first meeting Wednesday on the issue of crime in the city of Atlanta.

"This committee wants to dig down and look at the facts.  There's going to be a lot of politics involved in this and we're going to try to sidestep that," said state Rep. J. Collins, R-Villa Rica, the committee chairman.

Back in March House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, announced that he had tapped the committee to come up with what, if any, solutions the state might be able to provide to help fight the crime problem including offering help from the Georgia State Patrol or Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

"We're losing the battle on crime," said Rep. Collins.  "We're continuing to lose that and something has to be done.  I don't want to see us pit the State of Georgia against the City of Atlanta and I have to say that the Mayor's Office in the City of Atlanta has reached out.  They want to be a part of the solution and want to provide some information.  So, we're looking forward to hearing and digging down and finding out exactly where the root cause is."

SEE ALSO: House Republicans condemn Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's Holocaust comments

During the meeting, committee members each got a chance to weigh in on who they would like to testify on the issue. Some of the possible participants suggested include the Fulton County and DeKalb County District Attorneys, former and current Atlanta police officers, crime victims, church leaders and academics who study crime trends.  

Newly-elected Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labat attended the initial hearing and said he thinks the dialogue with state leaders will help.

"I believe that is the cure to the problem," said Sheriff Labat.  "We have to be able to communicate, be able to talk together.  This is not them versus us.  This is us trying to solve collectively a problem that's--a crime wave--that's hit the nation."  

SEE ALSO: Thieve steal car of mayoral candidate Antonio Brown

The Chairman and CEO of the Buckhead City Movement Bill White said while he is glad state lawmakers are taking a look at the problem, crime is the number one reason why they want to form their own government.

"This is a warzone.  Atlanta is currently a war zone and if we don't realize that, we're in big trouble," said White.  "I've very happy that the committee is addressing this, but we have to unhandcuff our police and let them do their job.  Expecting a different result otherwise is not going to work."  

Chairman Collins said he hopes the committee will hold a couple of days of hearings in June and July. 

WATCH: FOX 5 Atlanta live news coverage

_____

Sign up for FOX 5 email alerts

Download the FOX 5 Atlanta app for breaking news and weather alerts.