Mableton is planning to hire 70 law enforcement officers and 10 civilian personnel before June 1 as the city works to establish its first police department.

The first 70 officers needed are based on numbers from Cobb County Police Department’s Precinct 2, which primarily serves south Cobb, including Mableton and unincorporated areas of Powder Springs and Austell.

Until now, the Cobb Police Department has provided law enforcement services in Mableton. However, the city is planning to set up its new police department and take over policing on June 1, 2027.

According to Cobb Police spokesman Sgt. Eric Smith, Precinct 2 has 79 sworn police officers assigned to it.

“In general, the number of officers needed to patrol a given area would be based on that area’s population density, call volume and crime trends,” Smith told the Journal.

Mableton Public Safety Director Kerry Stallings said when determining how many officers are needed, he considered Mableton’s population and Cobb Police’s numbers and call volume as well as beginning police numbers from departments such as Sandy Springs, Johns Creek, Dunwoody and Brookhaven.

“So, looking at what Cobb County utilized for their staffing numbers for Precinct 2, looking at those other very successful agencies as a model, we felt that 70 was a very appropriate number to start. It would be fiscally responsible. We would be lean and able to scale in a way that was strategic, rather than just adding manpower just for the sake of adding manpower,” Stallings said.

For example, Stallings said, Johns Creek began with 56 officers in 2008 for 72,000 residents. Now, the department has scaled to around 80 officers with a population of approximately 80,000.

Though the department is beginning with 70 officers, Stallings said more will be needed as the department expands in the future, though he does not have an exact number.

He said Cobb Police does not break down the number of officers or calls Precinct 2 receives into specific sections in the area it serves, which makes an apples-to-apples comparison difficult when looking to determine the number of officers needed.

A lean starting number of officers, too, Stallings said, is fiscally responsible.

The public safety division’s operating budget is $21 million and must pay for expenses including salaries, equipment, a police building and payments for Cobb Police services.

“We want to be able to operate within the budget that we have in front of us. The last thing we want to do is go back to our citizens and say ‘we want a larger police department just because, so we want to raise your taxes just because.’ That’s the last thing we want to do,” Stallings said.

Why is Mableton establishing a police department?

Following Mableton’s incorporation, decided by voters in November 2022, the city began with providing limited “city lite” services, including code enforcement, planning and zoning, waste management and business licensing. Other responsibilities, including law enforcement, police and stormwater management remained with Cobb County.

The city is moving away from its city lite beginnings, however, as the Mableton City Council moves to stand up a police department.

In May 2025, the city was unable to reach a long-term deal with Cobb County for police services, resulting in a $9.5 million, one-year deal with the county.

In December of the same year, the Mableton City Council voted to create a citywide public safety special tax district, which allows the city to levy a tax to pay for public safety services, which includes categories such as police, emergency management and more.

In May 2026, the city and county came back to the negotiating table but were again unable to reach a long term police-service agreement, leaving Mableton with a $13 million bill for one year of police services, and a June 1, 2027, deadline to establish its own police department and take over policing from the county.

In July, the Mableton City Council established a 4.5 mill tax rate to pay for public safety services. The tax district is expected to collect $21 million in taxes. The tax bills went out at the beginning of October and are due Dec. 1.

The council appointed Stallings as public safety director in August, and appointed Anita Allen as its inaugural police chief on Oct. 6.

Following the tax district’s establishment, Mableton residents raised concerns over the potential for double taxation and pushed back against the tax.

For those citizens, Stallings said he respects their voices and opinions and asked they keep an open mind when the department goes live.

“I would just encourage the citizens to know that when these officers do show up to help, that if they are one of the citizens that did not necessarily agree with the formation of the city or the formation of the police department, just know it’s not that (the) police officers, it’s not their fault that any of this has happened. That they’re there to just protect and to serve,” he said.

What happens next?

Mableton is now working to identify a location where it will house its police department headquarters as the city looks to hire officers.

“We’ve got a couple of really good options in front of us. We really want to be, again, fiscally responsible. We know that all eyes are on how we are spending this money right now. And we want to be respectful to our community and how we approach that,” he said.

He said the locations Mableton is looking at are near the city center and he is hopeful to make an announcement on a location for the police headquarters “soon.”

Hiring too, is underway as the city has received over 1,700 applications from across the state and as far as South Carolina.

Stallings said he has seen a few Cobb Police applications, but the majority of applicants are scattered across the state and metro region.

Pay for an officer position in Mableton begins at $66,000 per year with no experience, ranging to $81,500 for experienced officers.

Stallings said Police Chief Allen has worked to identify her command staff and is working to fill leadership positions first, before hiring patrol officers ahead of the June 1 deadline.

Later, after the department is established, there will be the option to scale up based on city needs, according to Stallings.

Currently, the department has a police chief who will oversee two majors, overseeing four lieutenants, over eight sergeants, over 10 detectives, a community outreach unit and four shifts of patrol officers.

Future department needs include a training unit, expanding areas of the detective unit as needed and expanding areas needed to partner with Cobb County’s Real Time Crime Center, Stallings said.

“We don’t want to create a tactical unit if we don’t need a tactical unit. What we want to do is be responsive to the needs specific to Mableton. So we’re keeping an open mind exactly how we want to phase those officers and those units in,” he said.

As for the county’s side of the department setup, Cobb County Commissioner Monique Sheffield, whose district includes Mableton, said things are going smoothly.

“If there’s anything that the city needs, we’ve been partnering since they came online as a city and will continue to partner until they’re up and running and they can take off the training wheels,” she told the Journal.

Sheffield said she is not worried about needing to rearrange the number of Cobb officers assigned to Precinct 2 in south Cobb after the new Mableton Police Department opens.

“We are prepared to pivot and move in directions that we need to move in to ensure that protection is provided for all residents within Cobb County and particularly South Cobb. So there are no issues there,” she said.

Sheffield said she looks forward to reading a completed police feasibility study from Mableton to see how numbers the county gave the city align with how Mableton is moving forward.

As for where Precinct 2 Cobb officers will be reassigned, if needed, Cobb Police said the agency “will carefully evaluate where additional manpower can be reallocated throughout the county.”

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