By Jim Durrett, President of Buckhead Coalition and Executive Director of Buckhead Community Improvement District

When I was given the opportunity to helm the Buckhead Coalition in mid-2020 after Sam Massell retired, we were four months into the global pandemic, the protests stemming from the murder of George Floyd had turned violent in Atlanta, the Chief of Police had resigned, and the morale of the officers of the Atlanta Police Department was so damaged that many left the force. Crime spiked and was, to a degree, out of control. The good people of Atlanta were not only concerned, but worried and even afraid.

In Buckhead, some believed that the only way to effectively fight crime was to carve Buckhead from the City of Atlanta, form their own city, and build their own police force. Others, myself included, believed that we would be much better served by coming together to solve the complex problem.

In 2020 and 2021 we met fairly often with APD leadership in both Zone 2 (Buckhead’s Zone) and headquarters to determine what we could do to help. The Buckhead Community Improvement District began partnering with Zone 2 in 2020 by funding supplemental police patrols in the evenings in the core of Buckhead where lawlessness was more prevalent. In 2021 the CID invested more of its tax dollars to fund a bicycle patrol to cover other parts of Buckhead’s core at other times of the day.

From one of those meetings with APD leadership a suggestion was made to explore the establishment of a satellite precinct in the Buckhead Village area. Long story short, we cut the ribbon on the Village precinct in 2022.

In 2021, Zone 2 won the crime reduction award, having achieved the greatest reduction in crime among all six zones in the City of Atlanta. Zone 2 repeated as the crime reduction award winner in 2022.

Now I am not saying that the reason that public safety improved in Buckhead was because of the CID’s and Coalition’s collaboration with APD, but I have no…