Mayor Bottoms Acts Upon Use of Force Advisory Council’s 45-Day Recommendations

August 2020

The Use of Force Advisory Council provided 33 recommendations spanning five areas of focus on policing practices: Mission, Vision, Values; Standard Operating Procedures; Governance; Community Partnerships; and Reporting and Transparency. The Bottoms Administration received feedback on the Advisory Council’s recommendations from an internal APD working group comprised of professionals across various ranks and zones, and from more than 4,000 Atlantans.

Mayor Bottoms announced seven Administrative Orders (AO) that address 16 of the 33 recommendations outlined in the Advisory Council’s report, including:

  • Developing a plan for officer training and non-retaliation language regarding an officer’s duty to intervene when seeing another officer using unreasonable force
  • Increasing public transparency through the development of a dashboard that shows APD’s use of force trends
  • Developing a plan to work with APD, City of Atlanta, alternative response organizations, and other key stakeholders to develop an alternative response continuum

The collective effort underway with the Atlanta Police Department (APD), our community and partners to reform our City’s use of force policies will continue to position the police department as a national model for modern policing. Thank you to the members of the Use of Force Advisory Council for developing a roadmap that will help strengthen APD and build trust between law enforcement and our communities.

Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms