APD Discusses Plan For Southeast Atlanta Neighborhood Patrols

Atlanta Police Chief George Turner and key staff members met with residents from the department's Zone 6 Thursday night to discuss changes to the patrol zone later this year.

The sweeping changes are designed to cut down response times, equalize workloads and allow officers more proactive face-time and interaction with residents and business owners.

Zone 6, which includes the East Atlanta Village, Kirkwood, Reynoldstown and Edgewood neighborhoods, would lose Morningside and Lenox Park from its northern boundary and Thomasville Heights on the southern end.

But it would get Grant Park, Old Fourth Ward and Sweet Auburn.

"Right now, the way some of these zones are and some of these beats are, it's kind of unbalanced. An officer is going from call to call to call, to call," Deputy Police Chief Ernest Finley said. "And so what we're trying to do is right-zize these to make sure these officers can handle the calls in the beats."

Atlanta's roughly 200 different neighborhoods are currently broken up into 68 beats.

Turner, Finley and Sgt. David Ferguson, the officer in charge of the analysis that led to the plan, say it will add 12 beats across the city which will equalize the workload, as will the addition of new recruits graduating from the police academy.

In addition to five new officers, each zone also will receive an additional patrol car.

Turner estimated that the plan could go into effect as early as September or October of this year, depending on how quickly the call-center information is updated.

Even after the plan is implemented, Turner said the department will review outcomes of response times and workload balance and make tweaks as needed.

Eventually, he said he'd like to form a seventh zone to cut down response times even more.

For more information on the zone redesigns, visit the Atlanta Police Department website.