Atlanta police responsible for patrolling downtown streets will get 12 new bicycles today, one of several measures to help address crime in the area.

Businesses leaders, led by Central Atlanta Progress and the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau, are investing $275,000 in beefing up downtown security, with money for new cameras and increased patrols, as well as the bicycles.

Police, including Chief Richard Pennington, and the business groups will have a news conference today to deliver the new bikes, said Richard Orr, a spokesman for CAP and the Atlanta Downtown Improvement District.

The push is a response to recommendations that the organizations made to the city in April to improve public safety.

City officials had asked the groups to see what was working downtown and what needed to be adjusted.

The suggestions include reworking the ordinance on panhandling to give police the power to arrest beggars and add more officers to the force, especially in downtown's Zone 5 precinct.

Other recommendations are to beef up safety at downtown parking lots, review how bonds are set for repeat criminal offenders, and introduce legislation to limit the size, number and frequency of meals that shelters bring to the homeless in public spaces, such as downtown's Woodruff Park.

"Some of these recommendations will require that we work with individual city and county departments on those that specifically deal with their departmental scope," A.J. Robinson, president of CAP, said in a statement.

"It will be ongoing."

David Wardell, vice president for operations and public safety for CAP and ADID, said police have needed the bikes for some time and want to eventually procure 30. The ones they have been using were purchased during the 1996 Summer Olympic Games.

Ten of the 12 new bikes were bought by CAP/ADID. Coca-Cola and the Atlanta Hotel Council bought one each.

"Discretionary spending for the city has come to a halt so that's why we stepped in," he said, acknowledging the city's current fiscal crisis.

While the $1,500 black Fuji bikes will be "officially" delivered today, police have been using them for awhile.

They have made more than 140 larceny arrests in the past three weeks, Wardell said.

"It has been a morale booster for them," he said.

"They are all competing to see who gets to use them."