 Today the City of Atlanta and Georgia Power are joining together to reach a milestone in the fight against violence in our ongoing campaign to protect the public safety while also protecting the women and men who keep us safe every single day. I really could not be more excited to announce this afternoon that the Georgia Power Foundation has generously donated $900,000 for the purchase of body armor for Atlanta police officers and other public safety departments. Working with my CFO Jim Beard, we have allocated an additional $900,000 from our budget for a total investment nearing $2 million in this life-saving equipment. Examples of the equipment we have in mind are right before you standing beside us right now and I know I feel safer so it's already working. This state-of-the-art armor includes 1,856 bulletproof vests and helmets that can withstand the onslaught of an a site ruffle rifle round. In total, the Atlanta Police Department under Chief Turner's leadership will receive 1,500 sets of equipment that includes both the vests and the helmet. At the Atlanta Fire and Rescue Department, we get 281 sets of equipment and our Department of Corrections will receive 75 for a total cost of $1.8 million. I really can't thank Paul Bowers enough, the Chairman and CEO of Georgia Power for leading the way on this important gift. Paul really is the picture of what exemplary business leadership looks like. Someone who understands that you can do good and well at the same time and who backs up his words with his deeds. Through his work on the Public Policy Advisory Board of the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and through his chairmanship of the Atlanta Committee for Progress, he is an invaluable public citizen and today is yet another example of his generosity and commitment to public safety. His insight and contributions are a tremendous resource for us all. Please give him a warm round of applause. Thank you Paul. I also want to recognize and thank the Atlanta Police Chief George Turner and Dave Wilkinson, the President and the CEO of the Atlanta Police Foundation for their work on this strategic effort. This body armor will immediately enhance the safety of our brave police officers and strengthen the security of our city. I also want to pause for a minute and just explain why I feel that this was needed. For those of you who recall about three or four tense days during the July after police officers had come under fire under fire in Dallas and in other cities. We had hundreds of officers who were engaged in keeping order in a responsible and sensitive way in our downtown. We had about 10,000 protesters on one night and I thought that our officers could not have handled the challenge any better. But I began receiving calls from officers families that night and they were concerned about copycats who would mirror the behavior of those that had fired upon officers in Dallas. And so I decided I wanted to do something about it. After we got through that tough summer, I got on the phone with the leadership of the business community and said we need to make sure that when our officers are doing a tough job where they run towards danger that they can do it in a manner that is as safe as possible. So their families at home know that we're doing everything to make them as safe as possible. And so I asked that the business community match one million dollars that the city was putting forth to provide this important material and protection. And I'll just tell you, we put out a challenge and we knew it would take a little bit of time. We thought that businesses would would would provide contributions incrementally. I never had a doubt that the people of Atlanta and the business community in Atlanta would step up. What I was surprised about was when Paul picked up the phone and said, Mayor Georgia power is going to do the whole 900. This isn't something we should wait on and we shouldn't wait to fundraise for this. So we're going to match it in its entirety. This outstanding public private partnership with Georgia power will enable our public safety team to provide a rapid sustainable response in the event of an active shooter situation with this gift. Georgia power is doing nothing less than supplying Atlanta with the power of state of the art protection. So today is a really terrific day. It's no secret, ladies and gentlemen, that this is needed equipment. After this year's tragic police shootings in Dallas and Baton Rouge, we know that these things can happen anywhere. And that's what today really is about. I've been overwhelmed by the response from our private sector in partnership with our police department. Georgia powers leadership and other companies leadership has been inspirational. And what's happening is other companies are stepping up to create robust public safety programs in partnership with our city. In August, GE announced a partnership with the city of Atlanta to develop advanced strategies for leadership development and training with our police department. I want to thank all the city's business and fill up philanthropic leaders for their support. Whether we're buying cameras for our video integration center or partnering with the poultry group to construct homes for our police officers on the West side. The Atlanta Police Foundation has also been an example exemplary partner in this effort, matching interest from the business community with our needs within APD. Since I took office as mayor, we have taken several major steps to improve our police department, grow it, strengthen it, improve it. These include eliminating furloughs, raising salaries nine times and increasing the force to 2000 officers, the largest number in its history. It is imperative that we continue to upgrade our police department in order to protect our officers, our residents, the business community and our visitors. As we have seen in the last year, the world is changing in dramatic ways, literally in the blink of an eye. Prejudice and hate can be unleashed at any minute by anyone. Today, Georgia Power is providing us with the proactive means to quickly and effectively respond to our biggest public safety challenges and to protect our future. For that, the city of Atlanta is deeply grateful. I would now like to introduce my friend and the leader of Georgia Power, Paul Bowers. Well, thank you, Mr. Mayor. Our company was founded on the belief that we want to make the communities better because we are involved. Our motto is Susan, where we serve was coined and adopted over 100 years ago. And it was adopted by our first president, Preston Arkwright. Today, I'm proud to be here in partnership with Mayor Reid, Chief Turner, Dave Wilkelson to deliver on the promise of making communities better because we are involved. To echo Mayor Reid's comment, it is a shared responsibility of Georgia's businesses to partner with local governments and civic leaders to make sure Georgia is a safe place to live, work and play. Our men and women in the Atlanta Police Department, whose service all should be thanked and honored for their service. When Mayor Reid issued the call for support of our police force, our fire department and corrections department, we seized the opportunity to help equip them with essential tools for doing their job safely. Likewise, our core value at Georgia Power is safety in everything we do to ensure our men and women who work to serve our customers have the equipment necessary to do the job safely. Today, our Georgia Power Foundation is donating the funds to ensure our police force here in Atlanta is equipped to continue to do their job safely and confidently with the equipment to protect them. We are deeply grateful for the leadership Mayor Reid, Chief Turner and Dave have provided to support and protect our first responders in the city of Atlanta. And on behalf of the Georgia Power team, please know that we honor all of you today. But we also honor what you do every day. So thank you. Thank you, Mr. Bowel. This is Mayor. I tell you, I want to acknowledge my public safety partner, Chief Patrick LaBotte with corrections. And of course, the giant chief baker from fire. We are our team is really here to provide the public safety to Atlanta. And we couldn't be more happier for this particular day. Let me just take a quick minute to just acknowledge Mayor Reid, you know, it takes leadership to understand the issues that are at hand and make an act make a step to make a difference. And when the mayor acknowledged that we needed to do something different to protect our officers and sending out the call to the business sector in the philanthropist community, I applaud him for that. And I tell you the men and women that don these these this equipment that's been purchased with this donation. It's amazing. It will continue to boost our morale within our department. Let me also thank Paul. Paul, thank you so much for this gift. So amazing opportunity, tremendous leadership from your corporation and the foundation Georgia Power Foundation to provide this gift. I tell you, this equipment will give us a different look. It protects our officers when they are active shooter involved. I want you clearly to understand that these that they invest that these officers are wearing, it will be a layered effect. It will be placed over the officers initial response ballistic vest that they presently have, and will give them that layer of protection as they move into those dangerous situations such as active shooter. We have stood up a really, really robust swat team on the direction of the mayor. You know, we had some big challenges after the attack in Paris and we realized that we needed to get better under the direction of the mayor. We doubled the size of our swat team and then began to think about what happens before our swat team arrives. And so we stood up what we call our technical field officers program, which gives our officers the ability to go in immediately. These are nine 911 responding officers who can mitigate any issues that take place. They don the they have the equipment that you presently see here. We deployed them initially when they were highly trained and pushed them out. And so this, again, is another layer of protection to our officers and the response that we provide to the citizens of the city of Atlanta. So it today is a an amazing day. It gives us the ability to continue to serve our citizens. And I'm extremely grateful to the Georgia Power Association, Georgia Power Foundation, Mr Mayor, and also the police foundation. And let me just take a quick minute to introduce Dave Wilkerson. Dave Wilkerson is the CEO and the president of Georgia. I'm sorry, the Atlanta Police Foundation. He is an amazing leader. And he has I'd like to bring him up and give a couple of comments. And I thank him for all that he continued to do for us. Well, thank you, Chief. Well, what a great day for the city of Atlanta and for the first responders here in Atlanta. You know, I think today's announcement, not only sends a strong message, but it's just another example of the tremendous leadership of our city through Mayor Reed, and his commitment to public safety and the public safety workers, those that go out there and put their lives on the line every day. And he from day one has made that his number one priority in his administration. It also sets I think is another example of the business community here in Atlanta, and companies like Georgia Power stepping up to support our mayor and some more support our police chief and building a safer city, a model city for the rest of the country to look up to. And then lastly, I said about in the back room there, is that it is a it is something that the other cities aspire to do. We were talking about the fact that I doubt any other cities across this country have done this. And it really does set another example of the city of Atlanta leading the way. And I'm inspired by that and impressed by that. You know, I want to back up just one moment and say again, the Mayor Reed and his vision and his dogged determination to make this city a safer city. And coupled with Chief Turner's leadership has really made all the difference in this city and I and I'm inspired every day and enjoy being their partner in this mission to create the safest large city in America. And again, that's inspiring work. I know I've said that already. But that's really what keeps me going here in the police foundation. Secondly, I want to again recognize Paul Bowers for the work you all are doing in the community, you know, supporting the police department supporting the police foundation and the mayor to build a safer city. I know Pedro Cherry and Mike Anderson and the rest of the Georgia Power team is here. You've got a wonderful team. And I tell you what, their work to support our city is just tremendous. And then lastly, again, I want to recognize the men and women of the police department and and the other public safety workers. The mayor mentioned in July of this year, five Dallas police officers were murdered and nine more wounded while they were out protecting citizens rights to protest. Now think about that they were out protecting the rights of those citizens to protest and they were shot and gunned down. And what was so tremendously inspiring to me was just a couple of days later, the Atlanta police officers and other first responders were out on the streets of Atlanta, once again, protecting the citizens of Atlanta and their rights to protest. And they did that without flinching. And I think they certainly should be rewarded and recognized for their bravery and their work that they do every day. So with all that being said, I just want to say on behalf of the Atlanta Police Foundation, we are proud to be partners with these great leaders behind me and making this initiative possible. Thank you. I just want to add a word of appreciation to Chief Baker and to Chief LaBotte. Chief Baker is actually my administration's point lead to UIC, UIC, the Urban Area Security Initiative, the Collective of County Leaders, and that's a group that I chair. I also want to thank Dan Gordon, the Chief Operating Officer of the City of Atlanta, whose office has purview over our police department.