Crime in Buckhead's Zone 2 Down 5 Percent

The amount of overall crime incidents in the Atlanta Police Department's Zone 2– which covers Buckhead– has decreased by 5 percent compared to this time last year.

Major Van Hobbs, commander of Zone 2, announced the crime decrease at the Thursday night meeting of the Buckhead Council of Neighborhoods.

However, he also said crime had increased overall by 8 percent in 2012, according to BuckheadView.

Hobbs told Buckhead Patch in an email that car larcenies in Zone 2 are down 42 percent for the first week of 2013, compared to the first week of 2012.

The department has recently begun compiling weekly percentages of car larcenies, the category which has the highest rate of crime in Zone 2, the report stated.

Looking forward for 2013, Hobbs said he would like to establish a statewide "Remove It or Lose It" campaign that would encourage drivers to remove valuable items from their cars when they leave them.

Hobbs said the multi-jurisdictional campaign would help out-of-towners, who are often the targets of most zone 2 car larcenies. Out of the 30 car larcenies reported in Zone 2 last week, only nine of them lived in the Buckhead area, for example.

"Larceny from Auto is not just a Zone 2- Atlanta, issue but an issue for jurisdictions throughout the State," Hobbs wrote Buckhead Patch in an email. "Part of the strategy to reduce the number of larcenies from auto would be an educational campaign through public service announcements, billboards, etc., just like the Click it or Ticket promotion."

Locally, police continue to push their Clean Car campaign.

Zone 2 officers will saturate the area, especially near Peachtree and Piedmont roads, to increase safety. Additionally, Hobbs said there will be increased checkpoints, such as sobreity checkpopints.

What do you think police could do to make Buckhead even safer? What crime issues are most pressing in Buckhead? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below.