Apartment complex owner says officers refuse to police property

SOUTH FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — An apartment complex owner is accusing police officers of refusing to police her property.

There has been a back and forth battle between the Brookfield apartment complex, the City of East Point and police.

All three parties faced a judge last month, but the problem hasn’t been solved.

Police said there was an overload of calls from the apartment and they were using too many officers at the complex on Washington Street.

Channel 2's Tyisha Fernandes filed an open records request and got the number of calls East Point police said they responded to. Police said there were 25 calls in August, 15 in September and 18 in October.

A judge ordered the complex owner to fill in the pool that wasn’t working, fix all the broken windows and lights on the property and hire off-duty police officers to patrol the complex every day from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. for a two-week period.

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There is a dispute over whether the off-duty officers showed up when the judge told them to.

During the two-week period, an off-duty Gwinnett officer wrote the judge a letter saying an East Point officer told him, “We are protesting this place.”

“That was certainly very troubling to us, especially for our residents. East Point Police still have to do their job,” said attorney Bryan Busch, who is representing the owner of the apartment complex.

Fernandes spoke to the City Solicitor, Antavius Weems. He said in a statement, “This is simply a smokescreen to prevent yet another contempt action to be prosecuted against the complex. This complex continues to be a nuisance to the citizens of the city and our police department has and always will respond to, address and protect the citizens the property owners won’t.

Weems plans to file a contempt order so the complex will be back in court soon.

Channel 2 Action News will be following any developments in this story.

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