Kathryn Johnston Shooting - Aftermath

Aftermath

Changes were made to the police department and to the narcotics unit following Johnston's death. The narcotics team was increased from eight to thirty officers as a result of the shooting. The mayor also announced that APD training procedures would be reviewed and a new regulation would be instituted requiring APD officers to take drug tests.

The shooting also brought under scrutiny the use of no-knock warrants, which exist to prevent drug offenders from having time to destroy evidence. After the shooting, the state senate voted to tighten restrictions, making it more difficult to obtain the warrants. The Atlanta Police Department was also forced to tighten its warrant requirements after an investigation sparked by the shooting. The police department also said it would review its use of confidential informants after the shooting.

As a result of the shooting, the police chief placed Atlanta's eight-man narcotics team on administrative leave.

A civilian review board was created in the aftermath of the shooting in the context of the public outrage that resulted.

Allegations of widespread misconduct in the Atlanta Police Department came under state and federal investigation after Johnston's shooting. The US attorney announced that prosecutors would investigate a “culture of misconduct” within the APD, including common practices of making false statements to get warrants and submitting falsified documentation in drug cases. The DeKalb County district attorney announced on the day of Johnston's shooting that she would also ask for an investigation into 12 other fatal shootings by police since January 2006.

The officers involved in the shooting testified that they had been under pressure to meet performance requirements of the APD, which led them to lie and falsify evidence, and that they had been inadequately trained. Police Chief Pennington denied the existence of quotas in the APD, but acknowledged the existence of "performance measures because if we don’t have them, the officers would come in every day with nothing on their sheets."

Other arrests by the discredited officers which led to convictions have come under review. The District Attorney for Fulton County announced that it was reviewing at least 100 cases in which the ex-officers had been involved earlier, as well as other cases with different officers who may have used similar tactics. In June 2007, one man who was serving prison time on drug charges based on testimony from Junnier and Smith was the first of these cases to be released from prison.

Johnston's shooting, along with several others, brought police use of deadly force under increased scrutiny. A week after the shooting, over 200 people held a rally in Johnston's neighborhood to demand answers to questions surrounding the shooting. The shooting was held by civil rights activists to be an example of the police department's poor treatment of people living in low-income neighborhoods.

In reference to this case, Special Agent in Charge Gregory Jones, FBI Atlanta, said, "Few crimes are as reprehensible as those committed by police officers who violate the very laws they have sworn to uphold."