ATLANTA — With the recent spike of crime in the Buckhead area, Atlanta Police Chief Rodney Bryant announced the coming of the West Village, a new mini-precinct, much like Zone 5, that will be added to assist in patrolling the city.

What the chief describes isn’t a knee-jerk reaction of throwing more cops at a crime stat problem. Bryant says their team analyzed data and discovered that a huge daily population spike in certain areas of Buckhead resulted in a lot of traffic incidents. Zone 2 officers are then forced to respond to minor calls, which makes it difficult for patrolmen to address more serious crimes.

“No other area of our city garnered that much population growth every single day,” Chief Bryant says.

The new West Village is set to be fully staffed by the summer of 2022 with two dozen officers. It will be a precinct that focuses on adding members to the traffic enforcement team so seasoned officers can be freed up to respond to high-priority calls and crime investigations.

“It should have a minimum of 24 officers,” says Chief Bryant. “We’ll add 10% of each Academy class to go to Zone 2, in addition to what their standard allotment of officers will be.”

The location for West Village is TBD, but Bryant mentions that the precinct will be based out of the Lenox Square station until a site is found.

Bryant also says that the morale is good among Atlanta Police Department’s ranks and there’s a good relationship with a vocal contingent of Buckhead residents who are simply not interested in splitting off from the City of Atlanta to become a standalone city.

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