TUCKER, Ga. — A new report finds people in Tucker have to wait longer for emergency dispatch and response than others in many nearby cities.
Channel 2’s Michael Doudna said the report also found Tucker taxpayers were paying more for police protection than cities with their own departments.
They found Tucker pays nearly $16 million for services from DeKalb County, despite city departments in Brookhaven and Dunwoody costing millions less.
This happens even after businesses like Ford BBQ on the corner and Village Burger have been broken into. It became an all-too-common sight.
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Break-ins have impacted more than a half-dozen downtown Tucker businesses, including Munster Cravings.
“It’s a city that I love. And so seeing these break-ins is very disheartening,” Munster Cravings owner Veronica Dalzon said.
And a new study finds Tucker lagging behind its counterparts in emergency response times.
When compared to Brookhaven and Dunwoody, the study found that for high-priority calls — Tucker residents waited on average 3.2 times longer than Brookhaven and 1.5 times longer than Dunwoody.
“I think quality of life is at stake. I think there comes a point in time when people say that’s not where i want to be,” said Matthew Lee of Tucker Northlake Community Improvement District.
However, in a statement, DeKalb County says response times have improved by 21% this year, pointing to a new compensation package leading to more officers, along with improvements to their 911 center.
DeKalb County CEO Lorraine Cochran-Johnson saying in part, “My administration remains committed to working hand in hand with the city of Tucker and its residents to ensure their public safety needs are met.”
“Tucker is its own city, it’s incorporated on its own. So why not have its own police department?” Dalzon said.
However, some business owners see a city police department as a way to improve safety and get a better return on taxpayers’ investment, “making sure that my employees feel safe, No. 1, and that customers feel safe,” Dalzon said.
The report did not make a recommendation one way or another on whether a local police department would improve response times.
And Johnson said in her statement that more context is needed for some of the data points presented in the study.
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