42 DeKalb officers off the streets over training issues

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — Channel 2 Action News has learned dozens of officers have been pulled from service at one of the busiest police departments in the state of Georgia.

Channel 2's Ryan Young has learned 42 officers were pulled off the streets and placed on restrictive duty in DeKalb County.

"They are not serving in a law enforcement capacity; we are doing that out of an abundance of caution. We want to make sure they have the training required to be a police officer," said DeKalb County Assistant Police Chief James Conroy.

The officers have not done anything wrong, but an audit ordered by the chief showed state-required training may be missing.

"We ran the report and came up with a large number of officers that showed some sort of training deficiency throughout out their career, some dating back to 1989. Then we narrowed that number down to 42," Conroy told Young.

Each DeKalb County police officer is required to take 20 hours of training each year. The classes cover everything from their firearms to use-of-force requirements. So far, many of the issues appear to be just clerical.

"If officers are missing a class, we offered them a class to get them caught up. Fifteen of these officers we did find some evidence of training, we did clear them and they will return to full duty," Conroy said.

Several officers had state-approved reasons for missing the classes, such as military service.

Conroy made it clear that services won't be affected.

"Still have plenty of coverage, no reason for the public to be concerned," Conroy said.

WSBTV