Edwards asks city to pay for prosecutor (VIDEO ADDED)

ALBANY, Ga. — The Albany City Commission has voted to task its staff with researching how best to fund a request from the Dougherty District Attorney to fund a new prosecutor.

District Attorney Greg Edwards has again asked the City Commission to consider awarding his office a one-time grant of between $125,000 and $175,000 to fund a community prosecutor position that would serve as a hybrid position.

Edwards appeared before the commission Tuesday morning asking for enough funds to reinstate a full-time position that would handle assets seized by entities like the Albany-Dougherty Drug Unit, the increase of cases dealing with street gang arrests and increase in property crime cases likely to come from the opening of the East Albany Walmart.

The position or position(s) — it would become plural depending on how much the commission is willing to grant — would also be required to interact extensively with local civic groups, school groups and neighborhood watches, not only to build law enforcement’s intelligence network, but also to help inform, educate and, as Edwards said, hopefully contribute to crime prevention.

“One of the things I want to emphasize with this position is crime prevention,” Edwards said. “Basically, what I want this individual to do is attend meetings with PTOs, neighborhood watch meetings, engage the community, work directly with the police precinct liaison officer, respond to citizen legal issues and engage business owners in implementing crime prevention strategies and gang intelligence in problem areas.”

City commissioners have stated in recent meetings that they believe the position is one that is a responsibility of the county and should be funded by the Dougherty County Commission.

The question appears to be how to fund it. City Manager James Taylor said the city would have to fund it by cutting existing programs or dipping into its reserve fund.

“Generally, it’s either got to be one or the other,” Taylor said.

Mayor Willie Adams suggested convening the committee in charge of a long-term trust fund to consider funding the prosecutor out of its fund in a similar way it supplied partial funding of the Albany Police Department’s Gang Task force.

While the position in question would likely help with asset forfeitures — items seized by police and typically drug agents as fruits of the crime — Edwards said he could not guarantee that any significant revenue would be generated. He did say that his office was willing to work with the Albany Police Department to make racketeering and gang cases, which sometimes do yield assets.

“Gang members often don’t have a lot of cash just sitting around or fat bank accounts,” Edwards said after the meeting. “Typically, if they have much of anything, they have stolen property that is returned to the owners or have things that bring in relatively low dollar amounts.”

But, as he told the commission, this move isn’t necessarily about the money.

“If the goal is crime prevention, I think this is a good way to address it,” Edwards told commissioners.

Edwards said that in a year if there haven’t been what he called “positive measurable services,” the commission would have no obligation to continue funding the grant, a statement that Adams appeared to agree with.

“If we agree to do this, I want it be stated and understood that we aren’t taking on or funding the DA’s office,” the mayor said.