Moats asks for investigation
The Polk County sheriff writes a letter stating police officers are threatening to quit en masse if allegations against the administration aren’t addressed.
CEDARTOWN — Polk County Sheriff Johnny Moats wants the County Commission to seek state investigative help looking into allegations of cover-ups of investigations and other problems he said were made anonymously by more than a dozen officers from the Polk County Police Department against its administrators.
Moats put the concerns in writing in a letter sent to the Polk County Board of Commissioners on May 5 seeking for the board to decide on whether the allegations merit the assistance of the
Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
Those officers’ claims included in the letter were “favoritism in assignment and promotion, criminal activity and cover-ups involving administrative personnel, failure to supervise, failure to direct, retaliation, lying, gossiping and officer safety due to lack of coverage and support in the patrol division.”
Moats said in the letter the officers feared retaliation in the workplace if they came forward publicly with their complaints, and called the situation a “pressure cooker.”
He added the board needs to take action or the officers “will all quit and the county police will be unable to fulfill its obligation. I have been told by some of them it will happen by the end of May.”
If the scenario were to play out and all 18 officers who complained to Moats left the county police department at the same time, Moats said the sheriff’s department would then become responsible for patrol duties.
Currently, the Polk County Police Department has 37 officers on the force. Polk County Police Chief Ken- ny Dodd said his department is allowed 40 officers at a time.
Dodd also said he had no comment about the allegations contained within the letter that Moats said came from officers.
As sheriff, Moats could himself call in the GBI to make inquiries about the issue and has chosen not to do so and cited his lack of investigative resources as his top reason. He is among one of the several people within the county and the Tallapoosa Circuit who can seek state investigative help, according to the GBI’s website.
Those include governing officials of a municipality — like the county commission — district attorneys, Superior Court judges, chief law enforcement officers of any municipality, county police chiefs in municipalities with a population in excess of 100,000 people, regular or volunteer fire chiefs in arson investigations and Gov. Nathan Deal, who can call in the agency by directive.
He said he didn’t begin an inquiry since he has no detectives within his department to build a case, and he felt it wasn’t within his authority to do so even if he did.
“When I sent the letter laying out these allegations coming from their own officers and wrote the county commission, I just told them they need to fix the problem there. To have that many officers coming to me with these kinds of allegations, something is going on,” he said. “I don’t know if this is true or not, because I’m not investigating it.”
He contacted the Georgia Sheriff’s Association about what he should do, and they advised putting the request and concerns in writing. Moats said he has no intention to take over the Polk County Police Department’s duties, and is only trying to help the situation.
Moats said he has not been asked about the letter since he sent it, and thus far he has not heard of anyone asking for GBI
assistance in investigating the claims.
County Manager Matt Denton said if that were to happen, the board would have “serious decisions to make in a really quick time frame.”
He had no comment about the letter generally, but did say the board would be discussing its contents as soon as they were able to meet as a whole group at the next board meeting on Monday.
Commissioner Jennifer Hulsey provided the following written statement after she was sought for comment:
“I take Sheriff Moats’ letter very seriously. We need this entire situation investigated. It is important that we do this with an outside agency or investigators who have no involvement with the Polk county police or the sheriffs department, so that we, the board of commissioners, and citizens of our community can get to the bottom of this.”
She added, “Our county employees and citizens matter, and getting answers is very important. The safety of our officers and citizens has to be a priority.”
Commissioner Scotty Tillery also provided the following written statement about the letter. It read: “I take the letter from Sheriff Moats with great seriousness. My main concern is for the safety of the Citizens of Polk County and our officers. I can only speak for myself, but I will do everything within my power as a commissioner to guarantee the items listed in the sheriff’s letter will be investigated and addressed.”
The remainder of the commissioners had no response to requests for their thoughts on the letter. No comments came from Board Chairman Marshelle Thaxton, Jason Ward and Chuck Thaxton.
Commissioner Stefanie Drake Burford was also asked for comment on the letter, but did not respond to messages requesting her thoughts by press time.
The next session of the Polk County Board of Commissioners is scheduled for Monday, in which a veto override for paving requests from the cities of Cedartown and Rockmart is being considered along with additional funds now being sought by the City of Aragon for paving of Tom Pittman Field’s parking lot. They have also scheduled to have an executive session to discuss personnel matters.