Georgia state Rep. Ginny Ehrhart (R-Marietta) has requested an additional $3 million in law enforcement funding.
Agreeing with Erhart’s proposal, Georgia House Speaker David Ralston similarly told the House Committee on Public Safety & Security that the city would benefit from additional crime prevention measures.
“While some groups advocate defunding the police, your Republican State House, led by Speaker David Ralston, will be supporting $3 million in additional law enforcement funding to protect our citizens,” Ehrhart said on Facebook.
The financial aid increase would allow officials to implement changes such as the addition of 20 state troopers to serve for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s (GBI) SWAT and Nighthawks DUI task forces and increasing the number of officers enlisted on the GBI’s Gang Task Force and Georgia Department of Law’s Human Trafficking Task Force, a related press release stated.
The most recent crime-related data gathered in Atlanta indicates that its local police department has reported 79 murders so far this year, marking an 18% increase from last year’s 67 recorded murders. Last month, crime rates in the area skyrocketed by 60%.
Among the gun violence victims in the area are 12-year-old David Mack, who was shot to death behind a public golf course, 15-year-old Diamond Johnson, 17-year-old Clavin Jackson, as well as older victims like 63-year-old Yong Ae Yue and 74-year-old Soon Chun Park, among several others, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
“We cannot allow this spike in violent crime to continue to cast a pall over our capital city,” Ralston said in a press release. “I am committed to devoting whatever resources are necessary to bring this crime wave under control and bring criminals to justice. Our Amended Fiscal Year 2022 and Fiscal Year 2023 state budgets will contain proposals to do just that.”
