Decatur PD sent out this alert about an hour ago… (Location of Bruton Street via Google Maps)
On 6/16/14 at approximately 8:55 am, Decatur Police responded to a residential burglar alarm in the 100 block of Bruton Street. Officers arrived and observed the garage doors to be ajar, the gate into the backyard broken off its hinges and a rear living room window broken. A vehicle parked in the garage was found with the keys in the ignition in the on position, but not running. The homeowner was contacted and it was determined a second vehicle that was left parked in the driveway was now missing. A maintenance worker at a neighboring house reported seeing a black female, 30-40 years old, approximately 5’7”, wearing a white shirt and blue jeans walking in the area prior to the burglary.
The stolen vehicle is a red Mercedes E320 displaying GA tag (PEX 2935).
Batman
paging Batman
Anybody?
Meanwhile, red light running tickets for everyone!
Traffic stops are an important means for police to stop and question suspects for other crimes. The next red light runner they pull over could be a person wanted for burglaries or robberies. I welcome it.
And running red lights is against the law for a reason. It is dangerous to pedestrians, cyclists and other drivers.
I think they were referring to the red light cameras, which issue tickets without the added benefit of police being able to immediately investigate drivers that break laws.
I thought they got rid of the red light cameras?
Still up on Scott Blvd and Clairemont, I believe. The signs and camera boxes are still up anyway.
The cameras are there but not operational.
Right. The officers I see early in the morning are parked, strategically for revenue collection.
I don’t see any police patroling, and what’s the point of unmarked cars? A constant police presence deters burglaries and car break-ins, and speeding or moving violations.
You should sign up for the Citizen’s Police Academy this fall to find out how DPD really operates and meet the people.
I can’t see how finding out how DPD ‘really’ works will prevent the rash of property crime, and it seems Fall will probably be too late as the teenage perpetrators will be back in school, and since I have to work in order to pay taxes and replace glass in my car, I’ll be a little short on time.
I got it, Steve, ‘don’t criticize DPD’ because we don’t really know anything, yet the break-ins continue…
Like I’ve said, when the criminals perceive that they can get away with something easily, they become more brazen. No surprise that the city is silent about this because, you know, they have important matters to attend to like trees.
I don’t encourage vigilanteism, however it’s clear that we as a community need to do some things differently. Before anyone says it, that doesn’t start with blaming the victim. Let’s start by talking to our neighbors more often and answering the door when someone rings the bell. I have two sets of neighbors that are constantly home, but won’t answer when I ring the bell, even though I have something important to tell them pertaining to their property. And they know who it is.
Yesterday my neighbor saw a stranger trying to look through their mail and then ours, finally running down Adair when she came out after him. Yes, the police were called and my mailbox has a lock. We have a problem and we need to talk about this. With the city busy pushing its own personal agenda, we’re going to have to start working together to do our part in deterring crap like this, including pressuring the Commission.
Rick has offered services for signs, any other ideas?
More use of listservs, internet groups, etc. for quick communication among neighbors? A ton of folks are at home that didn’t used to be–besides the stay-at-home-parents and retired, there’s all those working part-time and/or teleworking from home.
You’re right in that MANY people are home every day around here. While listservs, like Nation of Neighbors, etc. can be useful in disseminating information quickly, it’s easy for people to become solely reliant on them, rather than actively showing their presence outside, talking to one another, uniting the community, etc, which is what criminals need to see.
Good point–we need periodic stretch breaks from the computer, walking around our properties and streets, getting to know our neighbors etc. “It’s 10:15 AM, time for Derrydown, Bruton, and Landsdowne to get out there and mingle!” “It’s 10:30 AM, time for Westchester, Nelson Ferry, and Mead!” By knowing our neighbors, we could avoid profiling–we could say “he doesn’t live here” rather than “he doesn’t look like he lives here”.
Decatur Metro has a twitter account, right? Residents can follow @dmetro. If you have a tip or information, just mention @dmetro and everyone who follows sees it.
What proportion of folks, e.g. DM posters, use Twitter regularly? I set up a Twitter account but it lapsed from lack of activity. Is there a 140 character explanation of how Twitter is useful for the non-techie user?
I use it but more for the output than for any self expression. I look at what’s trending–if big news is breaking you’ll see it there before you see it on TV. That’s where I learned that Osama bin Laden had been killed, for example. I also do a search for #DecaturGA just to see if anything is up locally.
Another idea is to digitize a “neighborhood watch” program. By that I mean, for individual homeowners to set up video surveillance of their property and the street in front of it, to aid in investigations. Just look at that video of the Red Dodge Nitro the other day for inspiration.
Before any civil libertarian loses their mind, I’m not advocating for the city to set up video surveillance throughout Decatur. This is more of an individual, grass roots thing. Think of it as a militia if you have to.
And the techie neighbors could help the non-techie neighbors with options available for equipment and how to install, maintain, and share info.
p.s. I reached out to the city with a concept presentation for the SAFE HOUSE idea i shared here a couple of weeks ago (establishing at least one house or business on every block—identified with a yard sign— that will offer refuge for pedestrians who are feeling threatened) and received a positive initial response.
we are supposed to have a follow-up call to discuss potential next steps this week.
will report progress as it becomes available.
Yay! I am willing to help in whatever way I can too.
The signs or decals idea would be better for showing which homes are actively participating in the Neighborhood Watch. It’d help shoo off criminals and also encourage participation by neighbors. While having a safe place house or business is a wonderful thing– we very much appreciate ours in Decatur Heights– advertising it as a place where the folks will open their door to anyone probably isn’t the best idea for their own security.
(Watches have suggested the signs/decals idea to DPD before. Finding funds to pay for it might be easier now that it’s being discussed on Decatur Metro. DPD doesn’t seem to get the “extra” some of the other depts do.)
FWIW from a former Decaturite (just shy of 15 years, deeply and actively involved in the community, especially on the south side, during most of that time)…
No amount of money or digital geegaws will ever take the place of neighbors getting eyeball to eyeball with each other on a regular basis. Big, new houses with porches don’t really feed the street community unless people are actually hanging out on those porches, engaging with each other across the streets and alleys and getting up in each others’ business. It’s too bad the Oakhurst Leaflet outlived its perceived value because early on, at least, it really did help reinforce ties within the community in two primary ways. One was offering a way of staying in touch and connected for households that are not Internet-savvy or even Internet-connected. The other was when the delivery corps was pretty solid, at least a few regulars sought and found opportunities to interact face to face with neighbors they didn’t know as they delivered the Leaflet each month.
Person to person interaction is what changes strangers into neighbors and helps neighbors work together to welcome benevolent strangers and guard against those with malicious intent. Big privacy fences don’t help. Neither does the continuing (accelerating?) trend to replace face to face engagement with digital proxies.
Good luck!
Couldn’t agree more. And not only is eyeball-to-eyeball good for crime prevention and community cohesiveness, it’s just plain fun.
Agree on all that. I’ll add my perspective from living here almost 10 years that dog walkers are generally way more connected to what’s going on with all of the neighbors. Getting out and doing yardwork, rather than entirely relying on a service, is another means to being connected. And finally, hosting porch parties, throwing block parties, or even leveraging our multitude of restaurant/bar patios for neighbor get-togethers are all great ways to keep the communication lines open. And I didn’t even bother to mention the walk-to-school crowd, which would piss off the non-parents but is a huge part of the fabric around here.
“And I didn’t even bother to mention the walk-to-school crowd, which would piss off the non-parents but is a huge part of the fabric around here.”
Why do you think mentioning the walk-to-school crowd, in this context and this thread, would “..piss off the non-parents…”???
He probably had you in mind AND you took the bait.
Silly BB–that was NOT Number Wang.
😐
I think you’re unclear on what “I didn’t even bother to mention” means.
Yeah….My car was stolen from my office parking lot at 215 Church Street…next door to Twain’s on Thursday afternoon.
I have no valuable input except to say sorry. Hopefully insurance covers the cost and you didn’t have anything that can’t be replaced inside your car.
Thank you…No valuables in the car. Just so heartbreaking. Feel violated. But, I do wonder why my incident has not shown up on websites or reports. Interesting
The city and DPD do so many things so well. DPD’s incident response time is impeccable. I just wish I saw more of them patrolling our streets. I understand some are in unmarked cars. That’s fine. Why not some on bikes? Foot patrol? More marked cars? I brought this up last week only to be rebuffed. You may see enough patrols through your neighborhood. But I don’t. And neither do the neighbors I’ve spoken to.
Since you don’t have any detailed, peer-reviewed academic studies to support your personal observations, they must be totally disregarded. If you come back with a 50 page report with some fancy color graphics and such, well then maybe we can talk.
Or a petition! Get 30 people to sign and they’ll pass an ordinance!
I think this is a great idea. I used to see DPD on bicycles a lot but not sure I’ve seen many lately. I’ve been pretty pleased with the DPD presence Downtown but have to admit I usually only see them on our street if someone has called them or there was a crime in the last 24 hours. One thing we could all do is be sure and use the DPD home check option when we go out of town. Besides the direct effect of a home check, the indirect benefit would be more police presence on residential streets.
We always do the out-of-town house check but it’s unfortunate that it’s so hard to find on the website. We know the police come by our house because they’ve called us several times in the past–while we were out of town–for various reasons.
Agree it’s not so easy. Looking under “Residents” is obvious. But looking under “Make a Request” isn’t so obvious. And knowing to look under “O” for “Out of Town House Check” instead of under “H” for “House” or “Home” is definitely a bit obscure. When I’ve been short on time, I’ve just called the non-emergency police info line which is preprogrammed in my phone and left our information that way.
The bikes and foot patrols are used regularly in the downtown area. There is generally one and often two officers assigned to just that area.
The square is a small part of Decatur’s 4 square miles.
It really isn’t practical to have foot or even bicycle patrols throughout all of the City, if that’s what you’re implying. Officers in cars can cover a wider area and respond more quickly.
Officers do perform “park and walk”, where they park their cars in different areas and patrol the surrounding area on foot. It’s a regular part of their routine.
What am I’m trying to imply is improvements could be made. Pure and simple. What are you attempting to imply by rushing to defend the DPD at every turn?
Because I think they do a pretty darn good job overall, born out by statistics and most citizen comments, and I have respect for the department and its people. Sign up for the Citizen’s Police Academy this fall and find out for yourself who they are and how they operate.
Not so much anymore from what I witness. Usually at least two patrol cars parked in the turnaround, with the officers visiting with various locals. I was told they were asked to be on the square during the school year to watch over the kids that flock to the square until their parents pick them up. Sort of like a city supplied daycare I guess.
That’s only Fridays. Mostly just RMS. DHSers too cool to hang with the little kids.
While we’re talking about solutions, does anyone have any insight into the analytics that our DPD might be using to allocate patrols and surveillance? To me it seems that if you drew a heat map of burglary, car theft, and robbery it would light up Candler Rd on the south side.
Suggest you get in touch with Sgt Ross about such things. They do have stats and do use them.
Rick – Thanks for organizing that. Although we travel a bit, I’ll be happy to put my house on the list when the time comes.
TeeRuss – Although I’ve been hesitant about a home system, some of the new systems are actually pretty cool and minimally invasive nowadays. For anyone considering it, the HD video does help the police. When I lived at Talley St. Lofts, video footage around the building always came in handy when we had a problem.
In addition to block parties, doing yard work, etc, another suggestion to develop better relations with your neighbors is to attend one of the team trivia nights together. There are many nights to choose from (Mon: Big Tex, Tues: Thinking Man, Wed: Mojo Pizza, Thur: Raging Burrito, etc.) and would make for an easy, weekly way to maintain camaraderie. Just don’t tell the criminals which night you all go…
Building on Rick’s idea, I think this is where the city needs to step up via a safety campaign. They could easily send out mailers, but also set up a public tent on the square one weekend, sign people up on Nation of Neighbors or another common site, inform residents about options like the out-of-town house check, crime prevention techniques, etc., receive suggestions and concerns from residents, and sign people up for the Safe House campaign (including passing out signs).
Threadjack: I used to play Trivia back in the day when the emcee would tell the players to put away their newspapers and dictionaries. Then I tried once smartphones became ubiquitous and it seemed like cheating was also ubiquitous, not so much fun. So do the venues you mention have honest games? Are there any that are light on the sports questions? (My weakness 🙂 )
I’ve been to trivia night at Thinking Man, the Corner Pub, Big Tex, and Mojo Pizza and didn’t really see much rampant cheating at any of them, although I’m sure some do. There hasn’t been much about sports that I can remember (lots of international topics lately), but sometimes when the questions are really random, it’s funny to hear a collective groan throughout the room as everyone’s stumped. It’s worth a shot to check one out again.
We play several times a month, and don’t really see people cheating. Or if they are cheating, they aren’t doing it very well b/c the teams I usually see winning I don’t see cheating. The MCs for the trivia nights are usually pretty good about reminding people to put their cell phones away too. You should definitely come back out, it’s fun!
Sgt Ross recently did a review of area crime stats and had several vendors in attendance to discuss prevention measures. It was way better than I expected. She even had a former burglar talk about some of his methods.
Or, we could always do this…
http://wtvr.com/2013/04/28/nc-man-patrols-neighborhood-with-rifle/
🙂