Mayor Gets Earful from Midtown Atlanta Residents

ATLANTA - Midtown Atlanta residents are fed up with crime. Tuesday night they packed a meeting, focusing their frustrations on Mayor Kasim Reed.

Some told their personal stories. One woman said it was 6 p.m. and she had a gun put to her head while in a nail salon. Tone Lane said he was robbed twice and when he went to the police precinct he was ignored. Many say fear has taken over their streets.

Mayor Reed promised more police will be on the streets immediately.

“If you're a sworn officer and you're at a desk you're going to be in the community. We're going to have vehicles drive and patrol the neighborhoods more,” said Reed. The mayor also said the beefed up holiday police presence that usually begins around Thanksgiving will start earlier, November 1st.

The mayor said he'll use overtime to achieve this.

“I'm not going to have our city in a position of fear, we will spend what we have to spend,” said Reed.

Reed also talked a lot about working with the courts to crack down on repeat offenders.

“I think that will do more to alleviate the concerns you heard tonight because most of the people who engaged in these crimes were caught before, they were just released,” said Reed.

They were promises that gave some hope. Rebecca Hammad has two young children. She said her house has been robbed, and she's looking forward to seeing more police patrolling the neighborhood.

“I hope we can do a better job with the community, the council, and the police to make it feel safer,” said Hammad.