Dickens and Moore had advanced to the runoff after no candidate in a vast industry received a majority of the vote earlier this month. The sitting down mayor, Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms, experienced introduced in May possibly she would not seek out reelection.
Leading up to Tuesday, polls prompt the contest was near with a significant swath of the electorate nevertheless undecided.
Dickens, a former businessman and nonprofit leader, has served on Atlanta’s Metropolis Council considering that 2013.
In a race that centered on a current spike in violent criminal offense as properly as controversy more than an effort by the residents of the wealthy neighborhood of Buckhead to break off from the cash and develop their individual town, Dickens — who formerly served as the chair of the City Council’s Community Safety Committee — laid out a community security plan that prioritized local community policing and boosting police resources.
Dickens’ proposal phone calls for increasing the law enforcement power by 250 officers throughout his initial yr in office environment even though demanding new schooling for every law enforcement department employee on de-escalation approaches and racial sensitivity.
In advance of the November 2 basic election, taking pictures incidents had elevated considerably from 406 at that position in 2019 to 629 this yr, according to an Oct 23 report from the Atlanta Police Division.
When Dickens requires place of work, he also faces considerations about low morale at the Atlanta Police Department and the selection of officers who departed the drive because June 2020. Tensions have been high after Bottoms identified as for the firing of the officer who shot Rayshard Brooks in the parking whole lot of a Wendy’s in June of 2020. Bottoms mentioned she had asked the officer be permit go from the pressure one particular working day following the fatal taking pictures, the Atlanta Journal Structure noted at the time.
However considerably of their rhetoric on the will need for a safer Atlanta was comparable, Dickens took a distinct approach than his opponent with regard to how he would cope with policing in the city.
Even though Moore proposed eradicating Police Chief Rodney Bryant from his situation, Dickens reported he would not instantly exchange Bryant and as an alternative would give Bryant 100 times to strengthen the department.