Crime & Safety
Early Results Of Atlanta Police Department Zone Reconfigurations: Quicker Response Times To Calls
Call volumes in APD zones affecting East Atlanta Patch increased but response times still decreased.
When the Atlanta Police Department began looking at making staffing changes in its six zones, one of the main goals, as outlined by department Chief George N. Turner, was to reduce officers' response times to service calls.
APD reconfigured its zones last month; a move department officials said achieves that main objective and balances the workload for officers across the city.
The zone redesign included the reconfiguration of the beats within each zone to create 12 new beats for a total of 78.
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In the month since the changes became effective, East Atlanta Patch wanted to see if the preliminary numbers showed the desired result of reduced response times.
Based on a review of the data we were given by APD, response times for Zones 3, 5 and 6 — which include all the neighborhoods that comprise East Atlanta Patch — have decreased for high priority calls.
Find out what's happening in East Atlantawith free, real-time updates from Patch.
In some cases, the change was dramatic.
For example, on the evening watch shift of Zone 5, which includes parts of Downtown, the response time for high priority calls logged between Dec. 15, 2011 and Jan. 15 fell to an average of 2 minutes and 28 seconds.
That's a huge drop from the average APD response time of 6 minutes and 27 seconds for the comparable period of Dec. 15, 2010 through Jan. 15, 2011.
Zone 6, which includes East Atlanta Village, Old Fourth Ward, Grant Park and East Lake, saw response times on its morning, day and evening watches all decline, even though the overall number of calls increased.
Under the reconfiguration, Zone 6, which stretched from Morningside and Lenox Park at its northern boundary, to Thomasville Heights at its southern end, became more compact.
Maj. John Dalton, Zone 6 commander, told East Atlanta Patch the better response times is due to increased police personnel in addition to the reconfigured zones.
Overall staffing to Zone 6 increased 25- to 30 percent, he said. Another big factor has been the creation of in Old Fourth Ward, one of the zone's main thoroughfares, Dalton said.
Here's the breakdown by zone:
Zone 3, which includes Swallow Circle-Baywood and Thomasville
Zone 5, which includes parts of Downtown
High Priority Calls Dec. 15, 2010 to Jan. 15, 2011 Response times Dec. 15, 2011 to Jan. 15, 2012 Response times Morning Watch 278 calls 2min 23sec 218 calls 1min 28sec Day Watch 215 calls 2min 31sec 184 calls 1min 32sec Evening Watch 288 calls 6min 27sec 261 calls 2min 28sec All Calls For Service Dec. 15, 2010 to Jan. 15, 2011 Dec. 15, 2011 to Jan. 15, 2012 Percent Change Total Number 781 Calls 663 Calls 15% decrease Avg. Response Time 11min 21sec 5min 28sec 52% decrease
Zone 6, which includes East Atlanta Village, Kirkwood, Inman Park, Old Fourth Ward and East Lake
High Priority Calls Dec. 15, 2010 to Jan. 15, 2011 Response times Dec. 15, 2011 to Jan. 15, 2012 Response times Morning Watch 249 calls 2min 32sec 288 calls 1min 28sec Day Watch 189 calls 2min 26sec 287 calls 2min 19sec Evening Watch 247 calls 4min 23sec 333 calls 2min 29sec All Calls For Service Dec. 15, 2010 to Jan. 15, 2011 Dec. 15, 2011 to Jan. 15, 2012 Percent Change Total Number 685 Calls 908 Calls 33% increase Avg. Response Time 9min 21sec 6min 16sec 33% decreaseGet more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.