This question comes up frequently at this time of year, especially when a couple burglaries are reported in a short period of time. The easiest answer to this question usually is, it depends. When crime in prior months is high, it tends to remain high during the holiday season. If crime is low prior to the holidays, that trend usually continues. In other words, crime isn't really about the time of the year, it's really just about crime. Based on what we're seeing, we expect the crime will continue through the holidays and after the holidays unless we start to change the way we respond to this problem. It's not about the police, it's about us. We need to take this problem a lot more seriously.
Since July 1st, we've seen a vast increase in burglaries in East Atlanta. Now we're seeing a large rise in shed break-ins too. The question is what we as citizens can do about it. First, we need to acknowledge the problem. We are being targeted during the evening hours, especially between 7-11 pm, with weekends being the biggest target. Why is this happening? From what we're hearing, many of the burglars are students at McNair High School. It makes sense that they strike more on the weekends and in the evenings. Unfortunately, the darkness is largely their friend. It's harder to see suspicious vehicles at night, and harder to identify the vehicles once they're seen. That goes for the police and for us as residents. In addition, when we do call 911 to report suspicious activity, the police response times can be slow, particularly in the evening when call volumes are the highest.
What can we as residents do about this problem? The EASP offers the most obvious suggestions, which is to better secure your doors and windows, and to have an alarm turned on while you're home and when you're away. However, many people choose not to do these things or can't afford to do these things. The same is true of paying for the EASP to proactively patrol the neighborhood. Some people choose not to do this and some can't afford to do so. While the EASP can't upgrade your home protection for you, we can patrol the neighborhood more if those who can afford it join with us. To try to encourage those of you on the fence about joining, we're offering the rest of November and December for free to anyone who joins the EASP for as little as three months.
Okay, so you break open your checkbook and join the EASP for the next four months. How will that reduce crime? The EASP is going to commit every dollar possible to extra patrols during the evening hours. When you call in a suspicious vehicle or hear a loud noise next door at 9 pm, we want to be there in no more than 3-5 minutes. All you have to do is call us after calling 911. We'll be putting every dollar in new memberships we receive during the rest of 2013 into evening patrols. If we can afford two officers on nights we have the most crime, we'll do it. We need you to call 911 and the EASP if you suspect any potential for criminal activity. There is no fine for false alarms on calls for suspicious activity; you can call 911 and EASP as often as you see something amiss. Also, if you witness or are a victim of a crime, please call the EASP to report what you saw, even if you gave all the information to a police officer. We'll detail in a future post what we do with that information and why it's important to report it right away.
Finally, do not assume that calling 911 is the same as calling the EASP. It's not. Calls are only dispatched to on-duty officers. If there is a backlog of calls, your report of a suspicious vehicle or neighbor's alarm going off may not be dispatched right away, and the EASP officer could be unaware of your call even if he's a block away.
Since July 1st, we've seen a vast increase in burglaries in East Atlanta. Now we're seeing a large rise in shed break-ins too. The question is what we as citizens can do about it. First, we need to acknowledge the problem. We are being targeted during the evening hours, especially between 7-11 pm, with weekends being the biggest target. Why is this happening? From what we're hearing, many of the burglars are students at McNair High School. It makes sense that they strike more on the weekends and in the evenings. Unfortunately, the darkness is largely their friend. It's harder to see suspicious vehicles at night, and harder to identify the vehicles once they're seen. That goes for the police and for us as residents. In addition, when we do call 911 to report suspicious activity, the police response times can be slow, particularly in the evening when call volumes are the highest.
What can we as residents do about this problem? The EASP offers the most obvious suggestions, which is to better secure your doors and windows, and to have an alarm turned on while you're home and when you're away. However, many people choose not to do these things or can't afford to do these things. The same is true of paying for the EASP to proactively patrol the neighborhood. Some people choose not to do this and some can't afford to do so. While the EASP can't upgrade your home protection for you, we can patrol the neighborhood more if those who can afford it join with us. To try to encourage those of you on the fence about joining, we're offering the rest of November and December for free to anyone who joins the EASP for as little as three months.
Okay, so you break open your checkbook and join the EASP for the next four months. How will that reduce crime? The EASP is going to commit every dollar possible to extra patrols during the evening hours. When you call in a suspicious vehicle or hear a loud noise next door at 9 pm, we want to be there in no more than 3-5 minutes. All you have to do is call us after calling 911. We'll be putting every dollar in new memberships we receive during the rest of 2013 into evening patrols. If we can afford two officers on nights we have the most crime, we'll do it. We need you to call 911 and the EASP if you suspect any potential for criminal activity. There is no fine for false alarms on calls for suspicious activity; you can call 911 and EASP as often as you see something amiss. Also, if you witness or are a victim of a crime, please call the EASP to report what you saw, even if you gave all the information to a police officer. We'll detail in a future post what we do with that information and why it's important to report it right away.
Finally, do not assume that calling 911 is the same as calling the EASP. It's not. Calls are only dispatched to on-duty officers. If there is a backlog of calls, your report of a suspicious vehicle or neighbor's alarm going off may not be dispatched right away, and the EASP officer could be unaware of your call even if he's a block away.