The shooting death of a 7-year-old Atlanta girl encouraged a group of community leaders to enlist a private security force to complement the Atlanta Police Department.
NBC News reports that Kennedy Maxie, 7, was shot in the back of the head by a stray bullet just days before Christmas. She remained in critical condition before dying from injuries on Saturday.
NBC notes that Kennedy’s death was one of a record amount of homicides that the Atlanta Police Department investigated this year. A suspect has not yet been identified.
Atlanta Police Officer Steve Avery said in a statement: “At the end of the week 52 reporting period, we recorded 154 homicides compared to 99 in the same period in 2019 … That’s a 61% increase.
The Kennedy shooting on Dec. 21 prompted a group of Atlanta city councilors to announce on Monday that they were allocating $ 125,000 to finance the Buckhead Security Plan, reports NBC. The proposed plan would finance a private police force in Atlanta’s affluent Buckhead residential area.
Councilors JP Matzigkeit, Howard Shook and Matt Westmoreland supported the plan along with support from the Atlanta Police Department, members of the Fulton County Commission and a member of the Mayor of Atlanta Keisha Lance Bottoms
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Along with additional security patrols, the plan also requires additional security cameras and license plate readers, reports NBC. The plan will cost $ 1.6 million with private police officers already scheduled to start patrolling the area in January, according to a report by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.