The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Called Doraville “One Of The Most Aggressive Police Forces In The State” And Claimed That “The City Collects More Traffic Fines Per Capita Than Any Other In Metro Atlanta” While Spending Half Their Budget On Policing. According to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “As he drives west on I-285 toward his job in Cobb County, Jason Bell often sees Doraville police cruisers lying in wait for speeders. On May 4 they caught him — 79 in a 55. He says he was just going with the flow of traffic at 7:30 a.m. on a Saturday, something that’s not hard to believe about the top-end Perimeter. In fact, when it comes to traffic tickets, he was nailed by one of the most aggressive police forces in the state. Doraville police write an average of 40 tickets a day, most of them on the city’s 2.7-mile stretch of I-285. The city collects more traffic fines per capita than any other in metro Atlanta, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has found. It also devotes nearly half the city budget to police department operations.” [Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 10/18/14]
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Found That Doraville Issued A Majority Of Their Tickets On I-285; King’s Officers Issued 3,000 More Tickets Than Roswell, Which Had A Police Force Triple Doraville’s Size, And Averaged 3 Tickets Per Officer. According to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “Last year, the Roswell Police Department’s 143 officers issued 11,435 citations. By contrast, the Doraville Police Department with a force one-third that size issued 14,560 traffic tickets last year — an average of three tickets per officer per shift, Gillen said. A majority of those were written on I-285, officials said.” [Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 10/18/14]
A Former Doraville Councilman Claimed Doraville’s Officers Were “Dialing For Dollars” On I-285 To Cover The City’s Ballooning Police Budget. According to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “But former Doraville councilman Tom Hart, who lost a mayoral bid in 2011, said too much of the city’s money is sucked up by police services that don’t really serve the average citizen. The 46 percent of its budget that Doraville devotes to police is the second-highest among more than two dozen metro Atlanta jurisdictions (barely trailing Jonesboro at 47 percent). ‘They are not in the neighborhoods,’ complained Hart, who remains active in city politics. ‘They’re up on I-285, on Buford Highway and those other roads dialing for dollars.’” [Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 10/18/14]