Public Safety Director Calls for Investigation into 'Biased' Cop

Smyrna-Vinings, Ga. - The Cobb County Department of Public Safety and the county manager have asked the Cobb County District Attorney’s Office to launch an independent investigation into the conduct of a county policeman, the department’s head announced Monday.

Officer Maurice Lawson pulled over black motorist Brian Baker on Mableton Parkway on Nov. 16 and was recorded on dash camera footage telling Baker to “Go back to Fulton County” and saying “I don’t want to hear about your people.”

“This officer’s actions and comments are unacceptable and do not reflect the attitude and vision of this department or Cobb County,” Department of Public Safety Director Sam D. Heaton said Monday in a statement. “I believe this incident is an isolated occurrence and not indicative of a department wide problem.”

Heaton declined to comment further on the officer involved but said in his statement that he and County Manager David Hankerson have asked the DA’s Office to investigate ”all matters in this case” and specifically mentioned:

1. Completions and the resulting corrective and disciplinary actions from a personnel standpoint.

2. The appearance that the Police Command Staff failed to realize the level of discredit this incident could bring upon the officer, the department, and Cobb County and making prompt notifications to include me, the County Manager, and the BOC members.

3. The decisions made during the investigative process which include the meeting with the complainant and his attorney, delivery of dash camera videos outside of established standards, and reducing the tickets to a warning outside of the courtroom environment.

Lawson has been reassigned and will be disciplined for his actions, a Cobb County police spokesman confirmed.

Cobb County police have formally apologized to Baker and have reduced tickets Lawson issued to Baker to warnings.

Cobb County District 4 Commissioner Lisa Cupid, who is black, accused Lawson of tailing her in an unmarked police car in July. Cupid claimed in a memorandum to Chairman Tim Lee that Lawson’s unmarked car sped up as if to ram her twice, but was told by officers that Lawson had stopped all activity after he ran her plates and discovered who she was.

“That police officer was not there to protect and serve. He was there to harass and intimidate,” Cupid wrote in her memorandum. “I do not believe for one moment that a Lexus RX 330 would be tailed and intimidated by a police officer in East Cobb, West Cobb or North Cobb, Vinings, the Cumberland area: especially if the driver was white or a neighborhood of affluence.”

“If I did not serve in the position I am in, I would move. Instantly,” she wrote. “I did not move to my home to be subject to a police state.”