In their complaints, the cadet-whistleblowers portray their specific accusations as symptoms of a systemic problem. They allege a pattern of APD moving officers considered problematic from patrol duties into academy instructor positions, where they might be less likely to generate complaints or litigation than they would if they continued working with the public.
Joel Elliott
Joel Elliott is an investigative journalist covering human rights and abuses of power. Reporting for his first newspaper, Georgia’s Toccoa Record, earned him the national Payne Award for Ethics in Journalism and Georgia First Amendment Foundation’s Weltner Hero Award. He later researched in the Middle East and freelanced across South Asia for The New York Times and GlobalPost. Along the way, he’s reported on transgender rights in India; covered bombings in Pakistan and Boston; been teargassed in Bangkok and Cairo; camped with Tibetan pilgrims in the Himalayas; and drunk countless cups of sugary tea around Bedouin campfires in the Sinai. Now sipping unsweetened tea in Atlanta, he’s back to holding Georgia’s powerful accountable.