By Roswell Councilwoman Lori Henry

For many years Roswell has been known as one of the safest cities in the United States, and comparatively speaking, it still is; however, today that reputation is in jeopardy. While there are societal factors at play that are beyond the control of government, there is also a structural deficiency that compounds the problem and it can be easily remedied provided politics and egos don’t get in the way.

As council liaison to Roswell’s Public Safety Departments, I feel it is my duty to do more than look at dry Roswell crime statistics. I talk with residents and business owners to gain their perception of public safety in the community. What I sense is many people are ill at ease with respect to crime.

Stories circulate among neighbors about personal experiences with home and car break-ins, robberies, and drug dealers openly standing on street corners; even worse, ask any Roswell area high school student if drugs are readily available and sadly the answer is yes.

Crime is on the up-tick in Roswell and North Fulton County in general. Is this trend a result of the economy, demographics, gang activity, drug activity, or just the wave of the future?

I posed those questions to our police chief and several officers. Their responses in a nutshell were “all of the above” however; they overwhelmingly felt as though they have been caught in a Fulton County “catch 22”.

Felony arrests are processed and tried in Fulton County. The problem that compounds the crime situation in Roswell is that the Fulton County Criminal Justice System is overwhelmed by the shear volume of cases. The County simply does not have the resources to house all of the accused and process their cases in a timely and proper manner. The Court focuses on what it believes are the most serious cases and the rest are either plead out or dismissed.

All too often offenders that are turned loose are back on Roswell’s streets and committing additional crimes literally before the arresting officer has finished his or her paperwork. Officers that could be out protecting citizens are stuck with cumbersome and archaic bureaucratic processes while criminals go in and out of a revolving door justice system over and over and over.

Because of that situation, sometimes Roswell officers charge felons they apprehend with misdemeanors so they’ll go before our local municipal court, which only handles lesser crimes, because that way the offender will be off the street - at least for a while. If you have ever found yourself in the unfortunate situation to stand before our locally elected Judge Maurice Hilliard you would know that justice in Roswell’s court is swift and fair.

So you can appreciate the seriousness of the situation, here are some examples of criminals that keep going through the Fulton County revolving door justice system:

Criminal A has been arrested 23 times on 40 charges in Roswell over the past 13 years. Charges have ranged from theft by taking, weapons in a school, felony possession of firearms, drugs with the intent to distribute, and criminal trespass. Criminal A has never served prison time.

Criminal B has been arrested 23 times on 39 charges in Roswell since April 1993. The charges have ranged from trafficking cocaine, criminal trespass, and theft by taking. Criminal B has spent only 6 months behind bars.

Criminal C, a career criminal, was arrested for multiple burglaries, of which he stole firearms and sold them to local drug dealers, and he was immediately released on his own recognizance. Criminal C was homeless and living under a bridge on Oxbo Road and immediately began committing more crimes.

After hearing these and numerous other accounts, I contacted Fulton County Commissioner Lynne Riley. With her help, cooperation and hard work we have been able to facilitate a constructive dialogue between Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard’s office and our own Chief of Police, Ed Williams. Working together we found a number of ways to improve the system so more criminals are off the streets and more officers are back on them.

Here are some of the areas where progress was made or is in the works:

Soon officers will be able to file their cases electronically from laptop computers in their patrol cars rather than return to the station to use a fax and wait for a response.

We now have a clear Internal Appeal Process which will allow our police chief to appeal an Assistant District Attorney (ADA) decision not to prosecute our cases.

A new ADA and an officer-training program will soon be in place.

And finally we have a ray of hope that Fulton County will locate an ADA in North Fulton County. With a prosecutor dedicated to handling criminal cases from the Northern jurisdictions, a much higher percentage of cases will receive an appropriate judicial disposition.

While these measures promise to improve the effectiveness of crime control in Roswell, in the long run the solution is the creation of Milton County with its own circuit court because no amount of tweaking the Fulton County Criminal Justice System will cure the crime volume problem south of 285, and while one Assistant District Attorney for North Fulton is a great improvement, it is still far short of the resource level needed to adequately handle all cases.

As our own Milton County circuit court is still somewhere in the distant future, I call upon our sister cities in North Fulton to join with us now in the pursuit of the criminal justice system resources we all need to effectively protect the communities we serve.