POST seeks rent, security and IT funding after on-site assault on investigators

Officials with the Peace Officer Standards and Training Council told the committee that an assault on two investigators in June exposed vulnerabilities at the council's rented headquarters and led to city-installed security enhancements that raised the rent.

A presenter for POST (Speaker 10) described the incident: an individual on probation allegedly assaulted two female investigators in the office lobby, and investigators subdued the assailant with help from others in the building. Austell police later found a rifle, three handguns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition in the suspect's vehicle, the presenter said.

"They had been put on probation...he came into the office to talk and just went nuts," POST's speaker said, describing the need for structural security upgrades. The city installed steel doors and bullet-resistant coating on glass and passed a modest rent increase to POST (the presenter said rent rose roughly $1 per square foot to just over $6 per square foot).

POST asked the committee to consider funding for two related items: $22,960 for a portable panic/personal alert system that the agency could carry to a new location, and a separate line to implement a paperless case-management system after opening nearly 1,500 cases in 2025 and closing more than 2,500.

Committee members pressed whether the city materially paid for the upgrades or passed the cost to POST, and whether the agency had considered moving into a state-owned property. Members urged a relocation plan and noted that a portable panic system and a take-with-you security system would mitigate risk should the agency move.

The POST presenter said the agency completed a security assessment with GBA, GBI and State Patrol and that the panic system would be portable (handheld/lanyard) and transferable to a new location; the paperless system, the presenter said, will help manage a large and growing caseload of investigative files.

Next steps: the committee asked POST to provide a relocation plan and cost details; the committee expressed willingness to consider appropriations for handheld panic devices and the records-management conversion for operational safety and efficiency.