How Safe Do You Feel in Buckhead?

Just a couple weeks ago, two patrons of the Northside Library were carjacked at gunpoint. In December, Zone 2 Commander Major Van Hobbs said the Buckhead area was seeing an “uptick in crime” due to increased car break-ins and home burglaries. Not even a month ago, men in ski masks with guns robbed two women after their Bible study dinner at Houston’s restaurant at West Paces Ferry and Northside Parkway.

At last week’s Buckhead Council of Neighborhoods meeting, Atlanta Police Major Van Hobbs said more blue lights will be seen in Buckhead’s Zone 2 this year.

The increase is due to the 27 percent increase in thefts from autos in Zone 2. A recent report showed that over a 30-day period, people who live outside of Buckhead reported more than three-quarters of all the thefts from autos in Zone 2.

An article in the Buckhead Reporter notes that Zone 2 was the only of the Atlanta Police Department’s six zones to see an overall increase in crime in 2012. The other five zones, except Zone 6, which saw no change in overall crime rates, had a decrease in overall crime rates.

Hobbs said he doesn’t have data to analyze if the zone’s jump in overall crime could be attributed to the zone’s recent addition of three square miles near Cheshire Bridge Road, formerly in Zone 6.

He said it could be a factor, however.

Zone 2 saw a 5 percent decrease in overall crime in 2010, an even bigger decrease of about 12 percent in 2011 before the portion of Zone 6 was added in late 2011.

Have you seen more “blue lights” recently throughout Buckhead? How safe do you feel in Buckhead? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below.