Ga. Sheriff Hires Officer Fired For Hitting Suspect With Patrol Car
Athens-Clarke County Police Chief Scott Freeman fired Taylor Saulters this weekend, saying the officer’s actions were “reckless” during an arrest attempt when he hit a man with his patrol car. A neighboring county sheriff hired Saulters a couple of days later.
A police officer in Athens was fired for hitting a man with his patrol car this weekend. By Monday, a neighboring county sheriff hired him, saying he’d be “a great asset” to the community.
Former Athens-Clarke County officer Taylor Saulters and his partner were trying Friday to arrest a man they believed had violated probation. When the man ran, Saulters tried to cut him off with his patrol car.
On a second pass, Saulters hit him with the vehicle.
Body camera footage shows bystanders unsettled by what they’d seen Saulters do.
“I got him with my car, that’s what they’re yelling about,” Saulters said in the video.
Athens-Clarke County Police Chief Scott Freeman fired him the next day.
“When I see that, it’s both reckless, and it certainly doesn’t demonstrate due regard for the safety of life in others, and that’s very alarming to me,” Freeman said.
He said he watched the officer accelerate down a residential, rain-slicked street and intentionally drive very close to the fleeing man.
“I do want to be very clear. Police officers have an almost impossible job to do out here on the street. We put them daily into situations where they just can’t win,” said Freeman, but he saw “serious issues with judgment and decision-making” in Saulters.
The summary of the department’s internal affairs investigation says Saulters “used poor judgment” and “did not have any information that would justify using a patrol vehicle to affect an arrest.”
“There are no facts that were uncovered that would have led to the justification for this level of use of force in this incident,” the summary reads.
Freeman says his department aims to earn community trust by holding itself accountable when officers do something wrong.
“There is a national narrative about law enforcement, and we want to set ourselves apart from that narrative and demonstrate that we are trying to do the absolute best in everything that we do,” Freeman said.
Within days of Saulters’ dismissal, neighboring Oglethorpe County Sheriff David Gabriel hired him. A GoFundMe campaign for the officer raised more than $6,000 in a day. Gabriel didn’t respond to requests for comment, but said on social media he’s known Saulters “since he was a baby.”
So why does the same action warrant termination by one law enforcement agency and hiring by another?
Frank Rotondo heads the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police. He says Freeman’s department is known to be a kind of gold-star department.
“Athens-Clarke County is under two real high standards. One is national accreditation, and the other one is state accreditation. What those standards basically mean is that they’re better than the average law enforcement agency,” Rotondo said.
Rotondo said the sheriff has every right to his own hiring decisions, “and certainly may have faith in that individual that they have learned that what they did was not acceptable.”
He added that hiring shortages are a nationwide problem for law enforcement agencies.
In his post, the sheriff also wrote: “If you are not an Oglethorpe County resident, I wouldn’t worry about it.”
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