Officials with the Atlanta Police Department say there are enough officers to handle a recent expansion of the Zone 2 police district, which includes Buckhead.
APD spokesman Carlos Campos said definitively there are. A new batch of recruits is expected to join Zone 2 in January, though police officials contacted for this article did not say how many the zone would receive. Officials also did not confirm how many officers are presently assigned to the zone.
But some Buckhead leaders say Zone 2 may not yet have the officers it was promised.
“Zone 2 is not currently up to the manpower levels it’s ultimately supposed to reach, but it’s going to be very soon,” District 7 Atlanta City Councilman Howard Shook said. “Within the first couple of days in January there’s going to be a new recruiting class graduating so Zone 2 is going to get a large compliment of officers from that class. That will get it almost where it’s supposed to be.”
Schook said there isn’t any “cause for alarm” regarding the amount of police officers on Buckhead’s streets.
According to a copy of the redesign published in 2010, the redesign anticipated adding 15 more officers to Zone 2 to cover an additional 3 square miles added. The zone now includes the Cheshire Bridge Road/Morningside corridor. The changes took effect earlier in December.
Campos said Zone 2 can handle the increased workload.
“Zone 2 has enough officers to properly answer 911 calls 24 hours a day,” Campos said. “In fact, Zone 2 has gotten 24 more new officers in the past year, (more) than any zone in the city.”
Zone 2’s crime rate dropped in several major crime categories this year, according to information published on the Atlanta Police Department’s website: auto theft, drug arrests, larceny, burglary and vehicle larceny all declined.
Zone 2 commander Maj. Robert J. Browning could not be reached for comment for this article.
Buckhead Coalition President Sam Massell said Browning’s new territory includes some “adult nightlife” businesses on Cheshire Bridge Road.
“The zone commander has been very cooperative about it,” Massell said. “ … He doesn’t have the control. He makes his suggestions and requests and although he might have opposed it, he doesn’t fight it.”
