Mayor offers public safety officers $1,000 bonus, some feel it's not enough

ATLANTA — In recent years, Atlanta has lost a number of public safety officers to DeKalb and Cobb counties.

Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms is offering a $1,000 bonus, but a city leader said they may be working  to give them more.

“The deeper you go into your career, the larger the gap gets between the city of Atlanta and other neighboring jurisdictions, so we’ve got to work on that," Howard Shook, chairman of the finance committee, said.

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The union that represents police officers said, “It’s not going to be enough to keep anybody here. It’s not going to be something to attract more candidates.”

The Atlanta Fire Union also said they too want to discuss more significant compensation.

Shook said it’s time they address the number of police officers and firefighters who leave for neighboring counties.

"We are working with the administration to do better than the original proposed thousand dollar bonus. I’m sure by Monday we’ll have worked out something significantly better, but it’s going to take a lot of water to turn the battleship around," Shook said.

Cox Media Group