APD major suspended for letting the Mayor’s brother slide

It was kind of shocking when CBS Atlanta reported that Mayor Kasim Reed’s brother Tracy, a city employee, had been cruising around in a city-owned vehicle with a drivers license that had been suspended since 2006.

A couple days later, the purveyors of Tough Questions™ released a dash cam video of the Zone 4 Major showing up to Reed’s traffic stop (he had an expired tag, too), chatting with him and sending him on his way. Then we were shocked. Especially because Reed also had a bench warrant out for his arrest.

In the immediate aftermath, Tracy Reed resigned from his city job, and now, the Mayor’s office says Major Rodney Bryant is being suspended following a preferential treatment investigation ...
Atlanta Police Chief George N. Turner will suspend Major Rodney Bryant for 15 days without pay as the result of a City of Atlanta Law Department investigation. The investigation focused on whether former city employee Tracy Reed, who voluntarily resigned from the City of Atlanta on November 4, 2011, received preferential treatment from the Atlanta Police Department during traffic stops on May 4, 2011 and October 28, 2011. Chief Turner’s decision is consistent with previous disciplinary action imposed upon police officers for similar violations.

The Law Department investigation concluded that on October 28, 2011, Major Bryant “failed to properly ascertain all of the information relative to the traffic stop available at the scene prior to allowing Tracy Reed to drive unlawfully onto the public roadway while his license was expired and suspended.”
... While the investigation found anecdotal evidence that it was unusual for Major Bryant to intervene in the May 4, 2011 traffic stop, the investigation found no evidence that the decision by Major Bryant and the responding officer to issue a copy of charges and notice of suspension was inconsistent with Standard Operating Procedures.

According to the investigation, officers didn’t know at the time that Reed had a warrant out for his arrest because Atlanta Municipal Court bench warrants do not appear in the Atlanta Criminal Information Center (ACIC) database.

A Human Resources Department investigation revealed that Tracy Reed violated city policy — and, well, the law — by operating a city vehicle without a valid license. HR made changes to its Vehicle Use Policy to prevent similar violations in the future.