School police departments in Georgia hire police officers who were fired from previous jobs or who “resigned under the cloud of an investigation” at twice the rate of other local police departments, an investigation by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Channel 2 Action News has found.
According to the report, about 12 percent of the officers working in the state’s school police departments have been forced out of a previous job, compared with about 6 percent who work in local police agencies. Among the reasons they were investigated or fired were poor performance, lying to superiors, sexual misconduct, and inappropriate use of force.
Atlanta schools police Chief Ron Applin told the Journal-Constitution the officers for the most part have “fared very well with us.”
