A team of police officers on bicycles will begin patrolling around Buckhead in an effort to prevent crime.
The Buckhead Community Improvement District approved funding for the new patrol, which will be made up of four off-duty Atlanta police officers who are part of the department’s bicycle team.
The officers will patrol parking garages and parking lots in Buckhead’s commercial core from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays, “adding visible policing to deter crime in these areas,” the Buckhead CID said in a statement. The CID, a self-taxing business group, is paying $310,000 for one year of the patrol.
“We’re committed to continuing security improvements in our community,” Jim Durrett, the executive director of the Buckhead CID and president of the Buckhead Coalition, said in a statement. “This investment gives APD Zone 2 another way to provide community-oriented, visible policing within the densest parts of Buckhead.”
Major Andrew Senzer, the commander of APD’s Zone 2, which encompasses Buckhead, said the department approached the CID about adding the bike patrol. Senzer said it will allow police to monitor areas that are more difficult to patrol in squad cars, like parking garages.
In the last year, the CID has also moved to fund three additional police cruisers to patrol in Buckhead. The push for additional security follows a year that saw homicides and shootings rise in Buckhead and throughout the city. So far this year, robberies, aggravated assaults and car thefts are up in Buckhead compared to this time last year, but burglaries and larcenies are down. Car theft has spiked most with 142 crimes reported this year in Zone 2. That’s a 63% increase over the same time period in 2020.
Last year’s rise in violent crime led community leaders to craft the Buckhead Security Plan, which calls for more police patrols, the creation of a strategic security camera grid and policy changes to improve enforcement of existing laws and ordinances.
“The bike patrol exemplifies how our partnership with the Atlanta Police Department is taking direct action to reverse recent trends for the benefit of everyone who lives in, works in and visits Buckhead,” said Thad Ellis, chairman of the CID’s board of directors.
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