Atlanta proposes spending $1.6m on private police force for wealthy suburb known as ‘Beverly Hills of the East’

Homicides have risen by more than 60 per cent in Atlanta, Georgia in 2020

City councillors in Atlanta, Georgia have proposed spending $1.6 million (£1.2 million) on a private police force to patrol a wealthy suburb following the fatal shooting of a seven-year-old girl.

Announcing the proposals on Monday, the public officials cited the death of seven-year-old Kennedy Maxie in the Buckhead neighbourhood of the city last week.

Buckhead is an affluent suburb, dubbed “The Beverly Hills of the East”, and the location of Phipps Plaza mall where the seven-year-old had been Christmas shopping with family members when she was struck by a stray bullet on 21 December. She died in hospital five days later, NBC News reported.

Atlanta city councillors said that they would contribute $125,000 (£91,950) towards a proposed scheme called the “Buckhead Security Plan”.

The funds will be used to establish a private police unit to work in tandem with the Atlanta Police Department, along with other strategies like surveillance cameras.  

The Atlanta Police Foundation, the Atlanta Police Department, Fulton County Commission members, officials from the mayor’s office and several community organisations have said they support the plans.

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the scheme will cost $1.6 million (£1.2 million). The private police are scheduled to start patrols in January.

Jim Durrett, from the non-profit Buckhead Coalition, said the security plan shows that city leaders "understand the urgency of the situation” amid an increase in shootings and other crimes in Atlanta.  

In a statement to NBC News, the city’s police department said the shooting of Kennedy Maxie was one of 154 homicides recorded before Christmas Day. That is a rise of 61 per cent in shootings than the same period last year. 

Howard Shook, a Democratic councillor who supports the security plan, said last week “that the civilian authorities do not control the streets and cannot provide even a token feeling of safety beyond our front doors,” in comments that condemned the city’s mayor Keisha Lance Bottom for not doing enough to combat the increase in crime.

"To the administration, I don’t want to hear the word 'uptick,'" Mr Shook said. "Stop minimising our concerns by telling us that crime is up everywhere.”

He added that crime in Atlanta has continued on an upward trajectory since anti-racism protests this summer, when demonstrators clashed with police. 

Speaking on Tuesday, Atlanta’s interim police chief Rodney Bryant appeared to blame the coronavirus pandemic for criminal activity, and said: “There’s no other areas to socialize, people find themselves - there’s no football games to go to, there’s no high school football games to go to.” 

Police have named 24 year-old Daquan Reed of Virginia as the suspect in last week’s shooting.

There have been more than 155 homicides in Atlanta in 2020, the highest number since 1998.