NOVEMBER 2000

Page 11

Does North Buckhead want a security patrol?

Some other Buckhead neighborhoods have security patrols patrolling their streets.  These neighborhoods, including Brookhaven to our east and Chastain Park to our west, have concluded that it is worth the money to have an additional presence to augment the Atlanta Police Department. 

The total cost to a neighborhood for a patrol depends on many factors but mostly on how many hours of coverage are provided per week.  The cost to an individual neighbor includes not only the extent of weekly coverage but, much more importantly, on how many neighbors are also helping to pay for the patrol.

As a hypothetical example, a continuous 24 hour per day 7 day a week patrol might be frightfully expensive: perhaps $160,000 per year.  If just ten households shared the cost for such a patrol, the cost per family would be a steep $16,000 per year.  If 200 households shared the cost, the cost per family would only be $800 per year or about two dollars per day. 

Costs (and benefits) can be reduced significantly by reducing hours of coverage.  A 40-hour per week working day service might cost $60,000 per year.  Such a service could provide a daytime presence, when most home burglaries occur.  With 200 subscribers, the cost per family might be $300 per year.  With 400 subscribers the cost per household might be less than $15 per month.

Neighborhoods hiring off-duty police officers often work random shifts, which reduces the hours worked, but whose presence/absence is

By far the hardest part of setting up a patrol is getting enough neighbors to come forward, saying they are serious about wanting a patrol.  Whether North Buckhead has a security patrol is not our association's choice; it's yours and your neighbor's.  If enough people don't respond, we won't have a patrol.  If enough do, we will go to the next phases - agreeing on hours of service, service providers (retired/off-duty police able to make arrests or security guards who can't), etc.