ATLANTA — On Monday, the state legislature passed and sent to Gov. Brian Kemp, a bill that would fund the retirement fund for law enforcement -- a measure that has drawn protests in recent days.
As lawmakers convened on Monday, there was a demonstration outside the State Capitol. It didn’t target the behavior of police, but rather the source of their retirement funding.
Their complaint was about a bill in the House -- SB 249 -- that would fund police retirements. The funding would come, in part, from fines police help gather from wrongdoers.
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"When you find out now, you are going to be receiving additional funds from tickets that you issue on fines, wouldn’t that make you want to make more arrests so that your retirement fund would look a lot better?" asked Hannah Gebresilassie, one of the protesters.
The money from the bill would also help fund the GBI Crime Lab as well as a handful of other state programs.
"This is how we fund the program in current law today," state Rep. Micah Gravely (R-Douglasville) told House members Monday, stressing that the bill adds jailers to the retirement program.
It also increases the revenue from fines that fund the program.
But opponents stressed that it seemed to provide an incentive for police officers to write more tickets and make more arrests.
"We’re going to encourage officers to go out and give tickets," said Rep. Dave Wilkerson (D-Powder Springs) during the House debate.
The measure passed the House -- with Republicans mostly supporting it and Democrats mostly opposing -- and with no mention made of the protest outside.
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