Q1: Why should I join the East Atlanta Security Patrol?
The main reason to join is to make the neighborhood safer. Yes, you already pay taxes and expect police protection, but East Atlanta has experienced large reductions in crime as a result of the extra police presence. In the early days of the EASP, East Atlanta had over 200 burglaries per year. By 2012, that number dropped to 50. Also, while Atlanta has more police officers than a few years ago, we still don't receive a quick response to lower priority crimes occurring in our area.. Joining the Security Patrol is a way for East Atlanta to have extra officers dedicated to our area who will respond to 911 calls in less than five minutes, and who provide a more visible police presence in the community.
Q2: Who is eligible to join the East Atlanta Security Patrol?
Currently, the East Atlanta Security Patrol serves households and businesses within the East Atlanta Community Association boundaries. And within those boundaries, we only serve those located within the Atlanta city limits. The geographic membership area of EACA shall have a west border of Moreland Avenue, north to I-20. The northern border shall be I-20 to Flat Shoals Road, where the border will go east of I-20 to include that portion of the City of Atlanta east of I-20. From there, the eastern border will be Fayetteville Road to Eastland Road and its intersection with Moreland Avenue.
Q3: How do I become a member of the East Atlanta Security Patrol?
The patrol accepts new members four times per year, on January 1st, April 1st, July 1st and October 1st. You may join on our website using the Home Membership or Business Membership menu options. For new Home members, yard signs are delivered prior to the start of each
entry date. If you sign up on September 10th, you will have your sign prior to beginning membership on October 1st.
Q4: What hours does the Security Patrol operate?
We don't publicize the exact hours officers are on duty, but patrols of residential areas are based on both historical crime trends as well as recent crime patterns. We also consult with the Atlanta Police Department to assess any changes that need to be made to our hours or methods of patrol. We continue to add more patrol hours as we sign up more members. Generally patrols operate during daylight hours on Monday through Saturday. That does not mean that EASP officers patrol twelve hours a day, six days a week. It means that those are the hours when you are most likely to see an officer.
Hours for our East Atlanta Village foot patrols are performed in parallel with patrols of residential areas.
Q5: How can I recognize a Security Patrol officer?
Patrols are staffed by off-duty Atlanta Police Department officer in uniform. They are armed and have full arrest powers. Unfortunately it is difficult to identify officers working for the Security Patrol because they drive marked APD vehicles. However, many people do know our officers, as we prioritize employing current or former Zone 6 officers who are familiar with our streets as well as some of the locations where crime occurs more regularly.
Q6: How does the East Atlanta Security Patrol work?
During each shift, the EASP officer will drive by the house of each home member at least once, usually two or more times. The other thing that increases the frequency of the officer driving past your house is the quantity of neighbors that sign up in a given area or street. Several streets have aggressively signed up members, and residents of those areas receive more frequent patrols. If crime increases in a given area of East Atlanta, we will shift more patrol attention to that area in an effort to reduce or eliminate the problem, but still take into account the patrol commitment to paying members. If a call is dispatched by 911 or as a result of a call to the EASP, the patrol officer will respond regardless of whether you are a member or not. The major difference between a member and a non-member is that the Patrol helps deter crime in areas with large concentrations of members, focusing on their homes during times when they aren't responding to 911 calls. And if a member is out of town, the Security Patrol officer will have that information and pay extra attention to their residence.
For business members, officers will walk by each member business twice per shift. Due to time constraints, it will not be possible to have officers enter your business every day, but you can always call the EASP at 404-954-1568 if you wish to have an officer come by. The officer does not have to be near your business to respond to your call.
Q7: How quickly will an East Atlanta Security Patrol officer respond to my call?
If a Security Patrol officer is on duty when a 911 call is dispatched, the officer will proceed immediately to your home or place of business. This is likely to take no more than 5 minutes. For residential burglaries, an on-duty APD officer may not arrive at your home for 30 minutes or longer. Security
Patrol officers are dedicated only to East Atlanta; they don't have to respond to calls in other parts of Zone 6. Keep in mind that it’s critical to call the EASP after calling 911. In the event that no on-duty officer is available to respond to a 911 call, the dispatcher may hold the call until someone becomes available. The EASP officer could be on your street and not know that you require police assistance. Unfortunately EASP officers are off-duty and aren’t considered to be available to take 911 calls even if all other officers are busy handling other emergency calls.
Q8: How do I contact the East Atlanta Security Patrol?
The East Atlanta Security Patrol can be reached several ways. You may call or text us at 404-954-1568. You may send an e-mail to [email protected]. You can post or send us a message on the East Atlanta Security Patrol Facebook page. You may also submit comments or questions via the Contact Us menu option on our website. If you see anything that requires an immediate police response, such as a crime in progress, a suspicious person or suspicious vehicle, we do request that you call 911 before calling the EASP. We are staffed by volunteers, so we can’t promise that we answer all calls, especially in the middle of the night. We do make every attempt to answer all calls while an officer is on duty and most calls when an officer is not on duty. We have about a 94% record of answering calls before you are sent to voicemail, and even voicemails are normally reviewed within a couple of minutes.
Q9: What should I do If I’m going out of town?
Please click on the Out of Town menu option to learn more. Providing extra patrols when you are out of town is available exclusively to members.
Q10: How do I renew my membership?
Renewal notices are sent by e-mail approximately one month prior to the expiration of your membership. We send several more e-mail notices if
necessary prior to your membership running out. Just before your membership expires, we will make one final attempt to reach you by mail or by
phone. Failure to pay by the renewal date will result in an immediate loss of membership and the reclaiming of your yard sign. If you absolutely can't pay on time but wish to renew your membership, let us know before your membership expires and we'll be happy to work with you.
Q11: Can I pay using my online bill pay service?
Absolutely! In fact, we encourage you to do so since it costs us nothing while PayPal fees take away money that can be used for more patrol hours. It's also easier for us to administer since most payments are sent to us electronically. If you bank with Bank of America, SunTrust, USAA or many other financial institutions, we will receive your payment the next business day. If your payment can’t be sent electronically, your financial institution will send us a paper check but that will take about a week to reach us.
Q12: How do you communicate with members?
In addition to Facebook, Twitter and our website, we send periodic email newsletters to our members. All newsletters contain the renewal date of each
address for which you are paying for a membership. We have a number of people who pay on behalf of elderly neighbors or who have additional memberships for rental properties.
Q13: May I add more addresses to your e-mail list?
Of course! However, we do ask that you limit the addresses to those specifically linked to residents of properties for which you are paying the membership fees. For businesses, you can include owners or managers of your business. Just contact us and we'll be happy to add an address to our list.
Q14: Why can't I update my personal information online?
To simplify things and eliminate the need to rely on volunteer programming staff or worry about the security of your personal information, we have set up an offline database to track member information and payments. This database also facilitates the creation of reports required to operate the patrol.
If you need to update your email address or phone number, add or remove people from email list or anything similar, send us an email at [email protected] or use the contact form on our website.
The main reason to join is to make the neighborhood safer. Yes, you already pay taxes and expect police protection, but East Atlanta has experienced large reductions in crime as a result of the extra police presence. In the early days of the EASP, East Atlanta had over 200 burglaries per year. By 2012, that number dropped to 50. Also, while Atlanta has more police officers than a few years ago, we still don't receive a quick response to lower priority crimes occurring in our area.. Joining the Security Patrol is a way for East Atlanta to have extra officers dedicated to our area who will respond to 911 calls in less than five minutes, and who provide a more visible police presence in the community.
Q2: Who is eligible to join the East Atlanta Security Patrol?
Currently, the East Atlanta Security Patrol serves households and businesses within the East Atlanta Community Association boundaries. And within those boundaries, we only serve those located within the Atlanta city limits. The geographic membership area of EACA shall have a west border of Moreland Avenue, north to I-20. The northern border shall be I-20 to Flat Shoals Road, where the border will go east of I-20 to include that portion of the City of Atlanta east of I-20. From there, the eastern border will be Fayetteville Road to Eastland Road and its intersection with Moreland Avenue.
Q3: How do I become a member of the East Atlanta Security Patrol?
The patrol accepts new members four times per year, on January 1st, April 1st, July 1st and October 1st. You may join on our website using the Home Membership or Business Membership menu options. For new Home members, yard signs are delivered prior to the start of each
entry date. If you sign up on September 10th, you will have your sign prior to beginning membership on October 1st.
Q4: What hours does the Security Patrol operate?
We don't publicize the exact hours officers are on duty, but patrols of residential areas are based on both historical crime trends as well as recent crime patterns. We also consult with the Atlanta Police Department to assess any changes that need to be made to our hours or methods of patrol. We continue to add more patrol hours as we sign up more members. Generally patrols operate during daylight hours on Monday through Saturday. That does not mean that EASP officers patrol twelve hours a day, six days a week. It means that those are the hours when you are most likely to see an officer.
Hours for our East Atlanta Village foot patrols are performed in parallel with patrols of residential areas.
Q5: How can I recognize a Security Patrol officer?
Patrols are staffed by off-duty Atlanta Police Department officer in uniform. They are armed and have full arrest powers. Unfortunately it is difficult to identify officers working for the Security Patrol because they drive marked APD vehicles. However, many people do know our officers, as we prioritize employing current or former Zone 6 officers who are familiar with our streets as well as some of the locations where crime occurs more regularly.
Q6: How does the East Atlanta Security Patrol work?
During each shift, the EASP officer will drive by the house of each home member at least once, usually two or more times. The other thing that increases the frequency of the officer driving past your house is the quantity of neighbors that sign up in a given area or street. Several streets have aggressively signed up members, and residents of those areas receive more frequent patrols. If crime increases in a given area of East Atlanta, we will shift more patrol attention to that area in an effort to reduce or eliminate the problem, but still take into account the patrol commitment to paying members. If a call is dispatched by 911 or as a result of a call to the EASP, the patrol officer will respond regardless of whether you are a member or not. The major difference between a member and a non-member is that the Patrol helps deter crime in areas with large concentrations of members, focusing on their homes during times when they aren't responding to 911 calls. And if a member is out of town, the Security Patrol officer will have that information and pay extra attention to their residence.
For business members, officers will walk by each member business twice per shift. Due to time constraints, it will not be possible to have officers enter your business every day, but you can always call the EASP at 404-954-1568 if you wish to have an officer come by. The officer does not have to be near your business to respond to your call.
Q7: How quickly will an East Atlanta Security Patrol officer respond to my call?
If a Security Patrol officer is on duty when a 911 call is dispatched, the officer will proceed immediately to your home or place of business. This is likely to take no more than 5 minutes. For residential burglaries, an on-duty APD officer may not arrive at your home for 30 minutes or longer. Security
Patrol officers are dedicated only to East Atlanta; they don't have to respond to calls in other parts of Zone 6. Keep in mind that it’s critical to call the EASP after calling 911. In the event that no on-duty officer is available to respond to a 911 call, the dispatcher may hold the call until someone becomes available. The EASP officer could be on your street and not know that you require police assistance. Unfortunately EASP officers are off-duty and aren’t considered to be available to take 911 calls even if all other officers are busy handling other emergency calls.
Q8: How do I contact the East Atlanta Security Patrol?
The East Atlanta Security Patrol can be reached several ways. You may call or text us at 404-954-1568. You may send an e-mail to [email protected]. You can post or send us a message on the East Atlanta Security Patrol Facebook page. You may also submit comments or questions via the Contact Us menu option on our website. If you see anything that requires an immediate police response, such as a crime in progress, a suspicious person or suspicious vehicle, we do request that you call 911 before calling the EASP. We are staffed by volunteers, so we can’t promise that we answer all calls, especially in the middle of the night. We do make every attempt to answer all calls while an officer is on duty and most calls when an officer is not on duty. We have about a 94% record of answering calls before you are sent to voicemail, and even voicemails are normally reviewed within a couple of minutes.
Q9: What should I do If I’m going out of town?
Please click on the Out of Town menu option to learn more. Providing extra patrols when you are out of town is available exclusively to members.
Q10: How do I renew my membership?
Renewal notices are sent by e-mail approximately one month prior to the expiration of your membership. We send several more e-mail notices if
necessary prior to your membership running out. Just before your membership expires, we will make one final attempt to reach you by mail or by
phone. Failure to pay by the renewal date will result in an immediate loss of membership and the reclaiming of your yard sign. If you absolutely can't pay on time but wish to renew your membership, let us know before your membership expires and we'll be happy to work with you.
Q11: Can I pay using my online bill pay service?
Absolutely! In fact, we encourage you to do so since it costs us nothing while PayPal fees take away money that can be used for more patrol hours. It's also easier for us to administer since most payments are sent to us electronically. If you bank with Bank of America, SunTrust, USAA or many other financial institutions, we will receive your payment the next business day. If your payment can’t be sent electronically, your financial institution will send us a paper check but that will take about a week to reach us.
Q12: How do you communicate with members?
In addition to Facebook, Twitter and our website, we send periodic email newsletters to our members. All newsletters contain the renewal date of each
address for which you are paying for a membership. We have a number of people who pay on behalf of elderly neighbors or who have additional memberships for rental properties.
Q13: May I add more addresses to your e-mail list?
Of course! However, we do ask that you limit the addresses to those specifically linked to residents of properties for which you are paying the membership fees. For businesses, you can include owners or managers of your business. Just contact us and we'll be happy to add an address to our list.
Q14: Why can't I update my personal information online?
To simplify things and eliminate the need to rely on volunteer programming staff or worry about the security of your personal information, we have set up an offline database to track member information and payments. This database also facilitates the creation of reports required to operate the patrol.
If you need to update your email address or phone number, add or remove people from email list or anything similar, send us an email at [email protected] or use the contact form on our website.