The Buckhead Community Improvement District announced the latest plans this week in their partnership with the Atlanta Police Department. The four additional officers will join previously deployed officers and vehicles to reduce crime by providing more visible law enforcement in the community. You can read the BCID press release below.
March 10, 2021, ATLANTA – Today the Buckhead Community Improvement District announced plans for a bicycle patrol as part of its continuing partnership with the Atlanta Police Department (APD). The BCID’s board of directors approved funding for four off-duty officers who are certified as part of APD’s Bicycle Response Team (BRT) to assist on-duty patrols from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays. The four officers will patrol parking garages and parking lots throughout the commercial district, adding visible policing to deter crime in these areas.
“We’re committed to continuing security improvements in our community,” said Jim Durrett, executive director of Buckhead Community Improvement District and president of the Buckhead Coalition. “This investment gives APD Zone 2 another way to provide community-oriented, visible policing within the densest parts of Buckhead.”
Last year, the BCID began funding patrol officers and vehicles to supplement existing APD on-duty patrols within the commercial core from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. six days a week. Currently, the organization has three supplemental off-duty officers and co-branded police cruisers patrolling the community.
“We approached the Buckhead CID to explore the addition of a bike patrol to complement the supplemental police patrol vehicles,” said Major Andrew Senzer, APD Zone 2 Commander. “The bike patrol will help us deter crime in areas that are more difficult to patrol in vehicles, such as parking garages and parking lots.”
“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 BCID board of directors.
The BCID’s supplemental patrols are one element of the Buckhead Security Plan, a collaborative effort to deter crime. The Buckhead Security Plan includes a range of near-term and longer-term actions including creating a strategic grid of security cameras, increasing investment in Crime Stoppers and pushing for policy and procedural changes to improve enforcement of existing laws and ordinances. The full plan is available at https://sites.google.com/atlantapolicefoundation.org/the-buckhead-security-plan/home.
The objective of the Buckhead Community Improvement District (BCID), working with the City of Atlanta and its community partners, is to meet the challenges resulting from Buckhead’s rapid, primarily automobile-based growth, including improving safety, traffic mobility, enhancing the pedestrian environment, creating better access to public transit, initiating intra-district transportation alternatives, encouraging better integration of land uses and improving linkages to the region’s automobile, transit and bicycle networks.
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