Police Chief, Staff Defend Zone 2 Expansion

Police Chief George Turner and key staff members Wednesday night defended plans to increase police Zone 2 from 36.1 to 39.5 square miles.

Turner, Deputy Police Chief Ernest Finley and Sgt. David Ferguson, the officer in charge of the analysis that led to the plan to add 12 beats across the city, presented a slide show on the changes designed to equalize the police workload across the city. Beats are also to be reduced in size.

"Some beats had too much work to handle for one police officer, and other beats not enough for a police officer," Turner said.

Zone 2 will increase to 13 beats from 10 with the addition of two beats from the Chesire Bridge Road and Morningside areas and the creation of a new "superbeat" that includes Lenox Square and Phipps Plaza. The zone is to receive 15 additional officers and three cars to handle the additional territory.

The presentation disclosed that the new beat system is to take place in September, instead of this spring or summer, as originally planned. Police officials have said that the shift would not occur until a sufficient number of officers have graduated from the police academy. The public meeting, one of six across the city, was held at the Lodge of Peachtree Presbyterian Church.

The Atlanta Police Department's presentation showed that the redesign was based on an analysis of police responses to 911 calls.  Zone 2, including affluent Buckhead neighborhoods that hire private security firms, compiled the lowest workload rating in the city, 18.3 percent below the average. The changes are projected to bring Zone 2 to 3.6 percent below the average workload.

Turner and staff answered several skeptical questions from the audience, which included city council members Yolanda Adrean (District 8, Buckhead), Howard Shook (District 7, Buckhead), Felicia Moore (District 9, part of Buckhead) and Alex Wan (District 6, Midtown).

Adrean asked Turner about the "logistics of handling your precinct," with the precinct headquarters located in the eastern portion on Maple Drive in Buckhead and an extensive amount of territory bulging to the western part of the zone. She wondered if officers spend too much time traveling to and from the precinct headquarters.

Turner answered that police officers spend their time in their beat areas. "Back and forth to the precinct, that is not an issue," he said. 

 Answering a question from a Loring Heights resident who said she was concerned about the length of response time to calls, Turner said the changes would improve response time. 

To download documents and maps about the plan, go to http://www.atlantapd.org/BeatRedistrict/2011/index.htm