Investigators looking into police misconduct say they’re not allowed inside Fulton County Jail

FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — The Fulton County sheriff is responding to allegations he has barred investigators looking into inmates’ complaints about police misconduct from entering the jail.

Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat says this all began when an Atlanta Citizen Review Board Investigator showed up without proper notice. Labat says that the investigator was barred not to prevent that person from investigating police misconduct, but because proper procedure has to be followed.

The Director of the Atlanta Citizen Review Board, or ACRB, says his investigators are still not allowed inside the jail.

“We still cannot go in there now,” Lee Reid said to Channel 2′s Tom Jones.

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Reid says it is essential for his investigators to speak face-to-face with inmates who allege misconduct by police.

“When you can’t interview the citizen about the complaint, this black hole that’s sitting there,” Reid explained.

Review Board members say Labat now wants investigators to get a court order or get permission from an inmate’s attorney before going inside. Reid says that would be a waste of court resources.

As for getting permission from an attorney, “Many of those citizens do not have attorneys who are representing them at that time,” Reid pointed out.

Sheriff Labat says this all started when a Review Board investigator showed up at the Atlanta Detention facility and tried to interview Fulton County inmates housed there without proper notice.

Labat says he has to protect the inmates’ constitutional rights, so he says he is now working on a memorandum of understanding that will lay out procedures for interviewing Fulton County inmates with efficiency and accountability.

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Wednesday night, the ACRB held a special meeting where it addressed what it called “interference by the sheriff” into its investigations.

The board decided not to support a joint press release with the sheriff and a proposed memorandum of understanding about this issue.

“We already have a process in place that we’ve had in place for 15 years. That needs to just resume,” Reid said.

The ACRB only investigates Atlanta Police and Atlanta Corrections Officers, not deputies at the Fulton County Jail, so no one is suggesting the sheriff is trying to prevent probes into police conduct.

Sheriff Labat says he hopes to come up with a plan where investigators and the sheriff’s office can meet their respective missions for the constituents they are sworn to serve.

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