By Jim Durrett, President of Buckhead Coalition and Executive Director of Buckhead Community Improvement District, and Major Ailen Mitchell, APD Zone 2 Commander

From the moment I was given the helm of the Buckhead Community Improvement District (BCID) in 2009, I have gotten to know many of the fine men and women of the Atlanta Police Department (APD). Over the next 13 years, my relationships have deepened and today the BCID and the Buckhead Coalition have developed a close collaboration with the APD, especially its Zone 2, built upon trust and respect. With the 2022 buildout and staffing of the APD’s satellite precinct in the Buckhead Village, that collaboration became apparent to all as both Governor Kemp and Mayor Dickens joined us for the opening. Today, Major Ailen Mitchell serves as the Zone 2 Commander, and I wanted to give the readers of this column the opportunity to get to know him, so I sat down with him last week for a chat.

Jim Durrett: How long have you been in the role of Zone 2 commander? In that time, what have been some of your first successes where you felt like you were going in the right direction?

Major Mitchell: Since April 2022, I’ve been the commander of Zone 2 which handles all operations in the Buckhead area. In those 10 months, some of my first successes were the opening of the satellite precinct in Buckhead Village, installing the new bike patrol unit and housing two traffic units at this location. 

JD: Can you help us understand how traffic patrols benefit public safety?

MM: On any given day, there is a huge influx of people in Buckhead who are commuting for work and visiting the retail, restaurant and entertainment district, which leads to traffic backups and incidents. Since a typical traffic stop can account for nearly an hour each time, that is an hour of which the officer is out of service to stop crimes from happening. 

We analyzed this data and identified a need to have officers dedicated exclusively to…