South Fulton Police Department temporarily relocates outside city limits due to emergency

ATLANTA — The South Fulton Police Department has been looking for a new headquarters for the last couple years.

Channel 2′s Tyisha Fernandes spoke with Lt. Jubal Rogers, who explained why South Fulton police said it’s an emergency situation.

Officials told Channel 2 Action News they haven’t been able to find a location that works for them in the city, so they settled on a temporary home on the fourth floor. But the problem for many folks is it sits in the city of Atlanta.

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“We have no central location, no downtown area to gather to be together to talk,” longtime resident Karen McGeehan told Channel 2 Action News.

McGeehan said the city of South Fulton has been a city for five years now and that it still doesn’t have many things to call its own — like a police headquarters.

“A few months ago, we had an environmental issue in the precinct where we had to basically close the precinct to our officers and our citizens due to an ongoing mold issue,” Lt. Rogers said.

For the last couple years, Rogers said they’ve been looking for a building big enough in the city of South Fulton. The department will need at least 18,000 square feet.

Due to the present emergency, City Council held a private meeting Tuesday where they voted to rent space in the Atlanta building.

Mcgeehan and many other South Fulton residents don’t believe police looked hard enough in their own city

“I would like to say ‘bull blank’ about that,” McGeehan said. “There are so many empty buildings in this area.”

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McGeehan believes the public should’ve had input on this issue before the city spent about $20,000 per month to rent space in the Atlanta building.

“If money is going to be invested, I want it to be invested in the city of South Fulton. I do not want the money to be invested outside of South Fulton,” she said.

She’s also concerned about paying higher taxes and police response times, but Lt. Rogers said there’s no need to worry.

“Our field operations, which is responsible for answering calls for service, they will remain in the city. There won’t be any impacts to our level of service,” he said.

The city of South Fulton just bought some property on Old National where they will eventually build their police headquarters in the next few years.

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