EACA Newsletter for October 26, 2009

As always seems to be the case, the months of September and October have been very high periods of crime in East Atlanta. September had the highest number of burglaries recorded in the years since EACA began tracking crime. And in early October we experienced perhaps the worst single week of burglaries ever recorded. Fortunately,
there has been a drastic reduction in crime the past couple of weeks. One of the reasons would seem to be a marked increase in police presence between the hours of 3 pm and 3 am. This has led to a significant reduction in all crimes. With only about five reported car break-ins during the past four weeks, we're at the lowest levels for this annoying crime in many years.

Burglaries are another story, and even the increase in patrols was not doing much to solve the problem. However, some recent arrests seem to have turned the tide in the past couple of weeks, along with a reallocation of APD overtime units and East Atlanta Security Patrol (EASP) resources toward more daytime patrols. However, we should not relax and think that all of our problems are solved. Here are some additional steps that we encourage all residents to be taking:

If you see suspicious people or vehicles, please call 911 and then call or text the East Atlanta Security Patrol at 404-429-8815. Sending an e-mail to your neighbors is smart, but quickly contacting 911 and the EASP gives us a chance to respond to crimes quickly. Don't worry if the call is not an emergency, the police and the EASP want you to notify them of suspicious activity before it becomes a crime. You do NOT need to be a member of the EASP to report crimes or suspicious activity.
Be wary of all strangers visiting your home or the homes of your neighbors. If you aren't sure if it's worth a call, it probably is. At the very least, you alert the police and the EASP of a possible problem before a crime occurs.
If you have a burglar alarm, turn it on. Whether at home or away, turn it on. And that includes activating motion sensors when you are away. If you have a pet, discuss with your alarm company what options exist to prevent your pet from triggering the alarm, or simply keep your pet in areas of the house where the motion sensors can't see it. Most significant burglaries occur when no alarm is on. If an alarm is on when burglars enter your home, they will often be scared away or take a couple items and leave quickly. And if you haven't upgraded to a wireless alarm system, consider doing so. Phone lines do get cut by more savvy burglars, which disables alarms tied to a regular phone line. It's even a way to save money, as wireless alarms have allowed many residents to discontinue their home phone service from BellSouth, a far greater savings than the $5-7 monthly cost of adding wireless monitoring.
Never assume that information you give to a police officer responding to a 911 call is being translated into action. One of the reasons we encourage people to call the EASP after calling 911 is to make sure that information is passed on to future shifts of both the EASP and APD. It's sad that we must check up on the police and do some of their job for them, but that's a reality. If you assume that the officer responding to your call will make sure that information gets passed on to all of Zone 6 or even the next shift's beat officer, you may be disappointed.
Be sure to inform the EASP if you will be out of town. With the holiday season approaching, we will see burglaries of homes while people are away for Thanksgiving and Christmas. EASP members can e-mail a single form with the dates and times of their trip, and have extra patrols performed by EASP officers, APD and Safe Watch volunteers. If you wish to become an EASP member during November, be aware that you need to sign up by Sunday, November 1st.
As discussed at our last EACA meeting, we encourage residents to join the Twitter groups that are set up in our community. There is no cost to join, other than standard text messaging rates. The two that seem worthwhile, whether you live within the city of Atlanta or unincorporated Dekalb County, are eav911 and EASP. Neither group sends out more than 5-10 messages per month. The eav911 group is focused mostly on immediate, actionable alerts where residents can be watching for a suspicious person or vehicle. Residents are also encouraged to send alerts to the community if they see suspicious activity. The EASP group is used occasionally for urgent alerts, but is more to inform residents of updates to the EASP website that may pertain to topics such as a bond hearing for an area criminal, a violent crime that seems worthy of immediate reporting, or even an area or street where residents need to be alert due to recent criminal activity. Beginning in November, select APD and EASP officers will be trying out membership in these groups. We'll have some feedback at upcoming EACA meetings as to how well this trial is going. EACA is also working on a similar arrangement with Dekalb County Police officers.

Finally, we want to remind all residents to be aware of their surroundings and to be cautious even on their own property. This report from Monday, October 19th came from the new lofts at Moreland and Ormewood. Do not open the door for anyone you don't know, day or night.

On October 19th at 2:00 pm, two black males knocked on a door and asked the resident to sign a census form. When the victim stated he was about to leave and didn't have time the suspects produced a gun and forced their way into the apartment. Both victims were forced to lie on the ground and had their property taken. One of the suspects fired one round at the victims, which struck the floor. Both suspects then left the area in a white, newer model Chevy Malibu which was being driven by an older black female. The suspects were described as two black males; one was about 5'11" and 170 pounds wearing a hat, blue jeans and a blue coat and the other was about 5'10" wearing a white dress shirt and khaki pants.

To learn more about the East Atlanta Security Patrol or to enroll, visit the EASP website (http://patrol.eaca.net). There is a 50% discount for longtime residents and those 65+. To qualify, you must have lived at the same address for 20 years or be over age 65. We also have a 20% discount for members of an APD-sanctioned Neighborhood Watch. Please contact us if you're interested in setting up a Neighborhood Watch on your street.

If you have additional questions, please direct them to securitypatrol@eaca.net, or call EACA Public Safety Chair Myron Polster at 404-429-8815.