DECATUR, Ga. — A program that pays off-duty police officers to patrol the square in downtown Decatur continues after a unanimous vote from the city commissioners on Monday night.
The commissioner said the program is still needed at least through the end of the year because of a shortage of Decatur’s own officers on the force, who would otherwise be patrolling by themselves.
The pilot program began this past April. Since then, the downtown development authority has been paying 18 off-duty officers to patrol Decatur Square during the busiest nights of the week, Thursday through Sunday.
They’ve been responding to calls and crimes while Decatur’s police chief, Scott Richards, works to eliminate a shortage of full-time officers.
“We’re making progress, every day, in the recruitment and hiring,” Chief Richards said Monday. “So hopefully by the end of the year, I hope we’re going to be able to fill additional vacancies and get some more people on board."
The Decatur Police Department is responsible for selecting the off-duty officers, and Chief Richards appeared before the City Commission on Monday night to report how the program is doing and to urge the commissioners to continue the program through December 31.
The city does not have specific crime statistics yet, to document the impact of the off-duty police officers.
On the square, business managers and owners told 11Alive off-camera that they and their customers have felt safer with the additional officers patrolling downtown.
Decatur Mayor Patti Garrett said it’s possible the city might extend the program even past December 31.
“Just, sort of, that feeling of knowing that there’s somebody on the square, and available if needed, we felt like that was an important strategy,” Mayor Garrett said.
For the next phase of the program, through December 31, the city will pay for half the costs — up to about $40,000, total — and the downtown development authority will pay for the other half while the police department works on hiring more full-time, permanent officers as soon as possible to patrol the city after that.