Crime & Safety
'West Village' Police Precinct To Add 24 Officers To Buckhead
Atlanta Police will open new mini precinct to relieve officers handling traffic as part of Buckhead population "doubles in size every day."
ATLANTA — A new mini police precinct will open in Buckhead’s west side, Atlanta Police announced.
The spike in crime in Atlanta Police Zone 2 - Buckhead - over the past year has led to the decision to increase the number of officers there, Atlanta Police Chief Rodney Bryant said.
“What we recognized in the Buckhead space was that crime was elevating much more rapidly than traditionally,” Bryant said last week in a meeting with media. “In a certain part of Buckhead, the population doubled in size every day. And most of our units are tied up in addressing accidents and traffic.”
Find out what's happening in Buckheadfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Called the West Village mini precinct, the new precinct will open and be fully operational by 2022 with a minimum of 24 officers. Criticism of the city's handling of increased Buckhead crime has been the primary impetus for the movement to secede the tony residential and business community from Atlanta and form a new city.
But Bryant said the move to open the new precinct is driven as much by population growth as by crime, Bryant said.
Find out what's happening in Buckheadfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
“No other area in our city garners that much population growth every single day,” he said. “It will relieve the officers in that Zone 2 space to go back to patrol as opposed to just handling traffic accidents.”
To staff the West Village mini precinct police will add 10 percent of each subsequent police academy graduating class to Zone 2, in addition to the regular allotment.
No location for the precinct has been identified yet, so new officers will operate from the Lennox Square Zone 2 precinct for the time being.
See also:
- Arrest Made In Deadly Buckhead Apartment Shooting
- Atlanta Police Leaders Call Buckhead Cityhood Critique 'Baseless'
- Buckhead City Committee Wants 'Divorce' From Atlanta: CEO
- Lenox Mall Security Guard Shot During Robbery Attempt: Police
- 'Buckhead City Now!' Demand Emailed From Community Group
- Man Accused Of Killing Kennedy Maxie Back In Atlanta Jail
- Drones To Patrol Lenox Square Mall: Reports
- Will Buckhead Security Plan Curb Crime?
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.
