ATLANTA — Retired and off-duty police officers have patrolled Atlanta's 20 largest parks for over two years, but some residents claim there is a reduced police presence.
“Most times of the year in the evenings, afternoons, it’s full of kids, full of boys and so that’s a big responsibility,” said Lewis Woodson, Parks and Recreation chairperson of the NPU-P.
The NPU-P is a neighborhood planning unit for several metro Atlanta neighborhoods, including Ben Hill.
Woodson believes having Atlanta Police patrols at the park for the past couple of years has brought out all ages to play at Ben Hill Park.
The chairperson claims patrols have stopped and crime has increased at a place once full of joy for all ages. Woodson said a basketball player was shot in the leg six months ago. He also said recently gunfire interrupted a football practice two weeks ago.
“With incidents like that, parents are afraid to have their kids out here. It’s as simple as that. When there’s less police patrol on this basketball court, we have chaos,” said Woodson.
Councilman Michael Julian Bond introduced legislation over two years ago that deployed police patrols at the parks. The program was successful before the patrols came to a pause.
“The rumors we’ve heard are they may have exceeded the budget for the program, but that shouldn’t be a production being issued to stop the program,” said Woodson.
Bond said there’s other money that could support increased patrols in the city’s park improvement budget.
At Monday's public safety committee meeting, Bond made a public request for APD to provide a status update on park patrols.
“We want to make sure the patrols are continuing. Citizens love it. They feel safer and our parks are more enjoyable,” said Woodson.
Bond said the full report on the park patrols from APD will be completed on Monday, Oct. 23.