Friday, May 17, 2019 Dear Gary Palmer, {am leaving ajob that | am very passionate about. A career that was my calling since childhood. | worked hard to enter the criminal justice field at atime where there were very few women in law enforcement. | selected the City of Roswell Police Department because it was a close knit community. The people | worked with at this department fet lke family to me. | always felt welcomed, and | always have trusted my brothers and sisters in aw enforcement at this department The City is a town where | lived most of my life. | had purchased several homes in this community, and 1 raised my family here. Itis very disheartening that the place | chose to work my entire adult life has dramatically changed. Today, there isa lot of negativity, distrust, and separation. | come to work, and | do not see passionate, happy people. Instead, | see a lot of anguish, frustration, and distrust. ‘After 35 years, lam fortunate to retire. Lam in position where Ican speak freely without retribution. Unfortunately, the people who are working, work here in fear. They are afraid to come forward to tell their individual stories, but | will share with you some of my personal experiences. For the last 10 years, | have been assigned as the department's Public information Officer. 1am in a position where | can make our officers shine by posting their stories on sociat media. Through TV / Radio media, | can assure the public that our police department isin control when crimes occur. I take great pride by always portraying our department with positivity. Frequently, | am stopped in public and thanked by citizens for the work that ! do, but sadly, | am never given recognition by my superiors. In fact, | was recognized by an employee who submitted a letter to the awards committee for a letter of commendation for an article I wrote and posted on social media. The article received over 5 milion views and brought our department positive, national recognition. After several animal cruelty cases, it was my mission to bring public awareness to this epidemic where people were leaving dogs in hot cars. I had been posting reminders, but officers continued their response to these calls. On Father's Day weekend, an officer sent me a photo of a Chihuahua that he rescued. | decided to write a compelling tale by posting a story as the voice of the dog, while displaying his before and after photos. PETA recognized our department by awarding us with the compassionate police department award. We received an overwhelming response of recognition from around the country when the media picked up our story. Donations of temperature gauges, k9 cooling vests, and coolers from our community businesses were bestowed upon our department. The amount of these calls drastically dropped with all the media attention. During this time, Capt. Dunkin was over the awards committee and denied my letter stating that this was “just my job”. Iwas devastated. At the end of the day, this was just a piece of paper acknowledging my work. {As time went on, it became clear that I was not being treated as a valued employee. Anew ‘administration was created, and the swearing in showboat event for the interim Chief set the tone. Instantly, harsh and drastic changes started to take place. felt victimized by some of the changes when | was yelled at on the phone by the new Chief as she told me that ! would be on call during my Personal Time Off for the Christmas Holiday. After explaining that | had TWO qualified people scheduled to fill in for me, she loudly exclaimed that she will not have a Lieutenant do my job!Several months later, | was denied vacation again after giving over a month's notice. This particular trip was very important to me since | was planning to celebrate a momentous family event with my aging father who was not in good health. | was devastated when my vacation was denied. | explained the significance of this family reunion, but the Chief would not budge, citing that there was no one to cover, forme. ‘At that moment, I decided that my family and my health were more important than my employment with this City. 1 struggled with my decision to retire based upon these incidents, but then | also recalled being told that | could not go to my annual training conference this year. Training is very limited for my position. Our department boasts that our officers receive an average of 200 hours of training each year, but | struggle to get my required 20 hours. This National Public Information Officer's Conference is well recognized by agencies across the country for it’s outstanding and relatable content. | was told that the fact that it was called a “conference” made the Chief deny my training, stating that people goof off and party at them. 1 personally find that statement insulting to my integrity. | started working for the City in 1983. I was the first officer to achieve Master Police Officer (MPO) status. | take tremendous pride in my work and never had any infractions. My evaluations have always been high, and | am self-motivated. | take my job very seriously, and | am passionate about keeping the people in my community safe and happy. Itis disheartening that | have been denied vacations, denied training, and I'm not treated as a valued employee. Over the years, | have worked on many holidays, nights and weekends for events and media requests. | have also been made available 24/7 without ‘compensation during my 10 year tenure as the public information officer. But, more personally to me, people were ordered not to be my friends because they are of higher rank. This direction was truly devastating and heartbreaking since | am a very open and social person with many friends here. | wish could have retired on @ positive note, but am proud to be a police officer who has served my community for over 35 years. Putting on a uniform each day is stressful in today’s climate. Each and every officer who makes the decision to come to work every day, risking thelr lives for others, should made to feel appreciated. Instead, they are led by fear and intimidation. Lisa Holland|