Police Zone 2 Sees Increase in Calls After Beat Redesign

APD's is coping with a jump in calls from the Cheshire Bridge Road area after the recent beat redesign, Zone 2 Assistant Commander Capt. Tim Ewing told NPU-B Tuesday night.

When asked by NPU Chairperson Sally Silver how the zone was handling "the stress" of an increase in the zone's territory from 34.6 to 39.4 square miles, Ewing smiled and said "I wouldn't call it stress." But, he said, ""we've noticed a spike in the number of calls of service."

Ewing said that Zone 2 now has an adequate number of officers to patrol the added territory, but "we'd like to see more. What we've got now is enough to handle it."

In response to a question, Ewing said the zone has enough staff for the zone's 13 patrol cars, but "we don't have the luxury" of discretionary work such as special surveillance duty by a detective. "We have adequate staff to staff the beat cars that we have out there," he said.

He said the zone is expecting more officers in February or early March from a  new police academy graduating class.

The new area, including Morningside and the Cheshire Bridge areas, is "dense, populated territory," he said.

Silver noted that Police Chief George Turner, in pushing the beat redesign that added the new territory to what was already the city's largest zone, promised that zone Commander Robert Browning would receive enough officers to handle the increased load.

Ewing reported that crime was down 13 percent, 733 crimes, in 2011 for Zone 2.