APD CARE Unit to expand civilian patrols across Atlanta

ATLANTA - Atlanta police say their new civilian CARE unit has been very successful and is taking some pressure off of sworn police officers.

The new unit allows officers to focus on high priority emergency calls.

"The care unit is a new unit of the Atlanta Police Department. For those of you who do not know what the care unit stands for, it’s an acronym for community assistant respondent," a city official announced at the August graduation.

The first six graduates of Atlanta’s CARE unit are civilians who completed 14 weeks of training and began work in July.

They now patrol the streets and answer minor calls, allowing sworn police officers to deal with matters of life and death.

The chief told members of Atlanta's Public Safety committee that he is ready to expand citywide. 

"We are happy to report that our pilot unit is highly successful. It allows officers that were sworn to remain on patrol on higher priority calls," Chief Darin Schierbaum explains.

After just four months on the streets in Zones 2 and 5, CARE team members have worked 1,862 calls for service and written 1,294 reports.

APD Care Unit

Council members had plenty of questions.

"If you're looking at the coverage areas, how is it that two and five were chosen?" District 12 Councilman Antonio Lewis asked. 

"We look at two areas with the kind of calls the care unit will be going to: car accidents, private property accidents, trees and powerlines down. The two areas of the city that had the highest grouping of those calls were zones 5 and 2. 

"What is the expansion plan?" District 9 Councilman Dustin Hillis questioned. 

"Our goal is to have CARE in every single zone starting in July of next year when we get the new budget in place," the chief said with confidence. 

The city is hiring. Applicants must be 18 years old, have a driver's license, pass a background check and have excellent communication skills.