“Big Kroger” parking lot, Decatur GA (pic submitted by Justin)

Following up on the post from this morning, Decatur Deputy Chief Keith Lee replied…

Entering autos is consistently one of the most frequent crimes reported in the City of Decatur. All officers of the Decatur Police Department are required to be proactive in their patrol activities, so that crimes can be prevented. That being said, officers should not enter a vehicle unless an articulable reasonable suspicion a crime has been committed exists. Without knowing all the details of this specific incident, I cannot say the officer was correct or incorrect in his/her actions. If the officer did not suspect a crime had occurred, the proper procedure would have been to leave the “safety check notice” on the windshield of the car. We are checking into this incident and if we find the officer erred in his/her procedures, it will be corrected.

If the person who received this notice would contact either Captain Richards or me, we could discuss this particular incident.

Garrett points out this quote from a just-posted Patch article about tonight’s Decatur School Board meeting…

[Decatur School Board member John] Ahmann said he is interested in hearing more views from the community and superintendent but wouldn’t mind seeing Fifth Avenue start times at 8:20 a.m., ending at 3:20 p.m. For Renfroe and Decatur High, he suggests 8:45 a.m.

“I’m curious as to whether or not we can use one less bus for the high school,” Ahmann said, adding that parents suggest that just 12 percent of high schoolers use the bus system. “Maybe we just need three.”

Both Valerie Wilson and board chair Marc Wisniewski provided quotes to Patch indicating their support of the Superintendent’s bell schedule for the coming year.  Here’s the current proposal again for your reference…

Apparently it’s a “warnings” kind of day.  Bijoux404 writes in…

Do you know anything about postal notices or the ramifications of getting  a ‘warning’ from the PO?  On Saturday, I got a form from the mail carrier that the mail box was obstructed, giving me a week to fix the problem.  There was no obstruction of the box, but there were two cars parked on either side of the mail box because (gasp) we were actually both home that afternoon.  We do not have a driveway and park in front of our house, as do most of the people on that part of our street.  We also cannot control who parks in front of our house and are sometimes blocked from "our" spots although people typically are
courteous enough not to block the mail box.

Some neighbors still have their boxes affixed to their houses and not on the street at all, so the carrier walks to their front door with their mail, but apparently is mad that they have to step briefly out of the truck to reach our box.  I don’t have a good solution for where to put my car when I’m home, and wonder if they can stop delivering my mail or take some other action because cars are parked on the street.

I don’t have the answer.  Anyone else know what happens if you don’t remedy the problem?

You may recall my car’s brush with the law almost two years ago.  (Geez, has it really been that long?)

Well Nellie’s got a new story to report.

A friend of mine on Forkner found a blue sticker on her car steering wheel left by the police warning her the doors to the car were unlocked. The car was parked in her driveway at the time. Do you know anything about this program? It seemed rather bizarre the police could enter her car on her property without her permission or a warrant! I figure you might have gotten some sort of notice or release about this if it’s legit…

It happened to me two years ago, so yes, this is a legit program run by the Decatur PD.  However, my car was parked in the street when I received my warning from DPD and they left the ticket on my windshield, not inside my car.  (They even came back a week or so later and noted that my car doors were now locked)

I’ll check with the police and ask about standard protocols for this program.