Peachtree City police have recently begun patrolling the city’s cart path system, the City Council learned at its retreat this weekend.

The patrols will expand as more officers are trained on the detail, said acting Chief Mike DuPree. Sometimes the officers will be on bikes, and other times on an all-terrain vehicle (ATV), which has a speed and distance advantage over regular golf carts, DuPree noted.

“We absolutely will use a governor to regulate the speed of that,” said Capt. Stan Pye, after DuPree noted that there were officers excited about using the ATV for path patrol.

DuPree said the patrol would concentrate on the highest-used areas of the cart path system. The ATV will also allow for off-road use so police can patrol off the path into wooded areas where kids sometimes hang out, DuPree said.

He noted that patrols on the paths were ranked the highest priority in a recent survey of citizens conducted by the department.

The goal is to get 600 hours of path patrol time this year, DuPree said, noting that the department logged only 57 hours in 2007 and 78 the year before.

The department is asking council to purchase a second ATV and equip it as part of the program. Also some overtime will need to be allowed but it can come out of the department’s overtime budget, DuPree said.

The initial plan was to have the department’s school resource officers help beef up path patrol in the summer, but they will have to be on duty for summer school at McIntosh High School and Booth Middle School, DuPree said.

DuPree said the decision to use overtime instead of tasking one officer made sense because the cost of the overtime at $20,000 was far cheaper than the first year’s salary and equipment for a new officer, estimated at more than $80,000 total.

The ATV will cost about $7,000 fully equipped, DuPree said. The ATV can travel further than golf carts can, and it can also overtake golf carts if necessary, police said.

Police will continue to do cart path checkpoints, similar to roadblocks, to make sure all city ordinances are being followed, DuPree said.

DuPree noted that the police department has five police officer vacancies, but two new candidates have been selected and will go to police academy soon. That would have narrowed the openings to two, but one officer recently resigned due to ongoing health problems, DuPree said.