Foundation to provide Atlanta police with one-time $500 bonus for work during protests

Police officers in Atlanta will receive a one-time $500 bonus from a private foundation as thanks for working during recent protests that have taken place in the city in response to the deaths of George Floyd and other black Americans.

Local news affiliate WSB-TV 2 reported that the bonuses will be provided by the Atlanta Police Foundation, a nonprofit charitable organization set up in 2003 to support the Atlanta Police Department and city officials.

The foundation also plans to purchase 20 police cars to replace cruisers destroyed during recent protests in the city. No public funding is being used for the donation, according to WSB-TV 2.

A section of the foundation’s website claims that the efforts are “strategically focused to complement the Atlanta Police Department’s [APD] vision of becoming the safest large city in America.”

The Atlanta Police Foundation did not immediately return a request for comment from The Hill.

The donation comes as a former officer with the APD has been hit with 11 counts including a murder charge over the shooting death of Rayshard Brooks, a black man who died after a scuffle in police custody that took place at a Wendy’s restaurant in the city.

Brooks’s death came amid protests in the city and across the nation of the deaths of George Floyd and other African Americans in incidents with police.