Canton Police Restructure Beat Zones

CANTON, GA — Canton police are reorganizing the way the patrol the city. On Monday, they announce a new Zone/Beat Operational System police will use.

The old system used four zones to cover the 14.5 square-mile city, but the new one reduces it to three. Cops within the zones will get their patrol beats, giving officers a smaller area to cover, according to a press release from the Canton Police Department.

• Zone 1 (light blue): area north of Etowah River and Riverstone Parkway
• Zone 2 (purple): area south of Etowah River, including Marietta Highway and Hickory Flat Highway south to exit 15 at I-575
• Zone 3 (yellow): area downtown to include Cumming Highway, Canton Marketplace and Northside Hospital – Cherokee

The department will run the new system for 90 days, evaluating it and tweaking it if necessary. "We strongly believe this new arrangement of Zones and Beats has many benefits for the community and our department. The goal behind the design is to afford us the opportunity to be closer to calls for service and for our Officers to be seen more in all of the areas of our Community for strengthened citizen engagement and crime reduction," Police Chief Mark Mitchell said.

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