Grant Park Has a Slow February

By Chris Newman
The month of February has been relatively quiet as far as serious property crimes such as burglary and with no reports of personal crime such as robbery. In our area of southeast Atlanta there have been a few additional reports of catalytic converter thefts but no particular make and model as reported last month.
Also another new twist in crime: There have been several reports of license plates being stolen. It would be advisable to periodically check your tag because these thieves have been swapping tags from vehicles of similar make and model. In these cases, the victims noticed the swap because the tag was not securely attached to the car.
After 20 years here in Grant Park, investigator Huner will no longer be working with us. He has taken a position as investigator with the Rockdale County DA office. Grant Park Security Patrol (GPSP) is interviewing for an APD officer to continue the neighborhood patrols with Lt. Iosty.
Grant Park is now beat 605 as part of zone 6. Major Dalton has been promoted and Major Meadows is now the commander of this precinct. Zone 6 officers are aggressively enforcing traffic laws so please be careful to obey all stop signs, traffic lights, speed limits, etc.
Thanks to all our members for your continuing support of the GPSP. The quarterly payment is $40 per household and the annual payment is now $160. It’s easy to pay online but, if you’d prefer to receive a hard copy of the invoice with an envelope to pay by mail; just email GPSP. If you are already a member, please encourage a friend or neighbor to join.
And a reminder to all members to notify GPSP if you are changing email addresses. If GPSP does not have your correct address, you will miss crime alerts, invoices and more. Members who join online can verify their payments at the Security Patrol section of www.gpna.org and also edit email addresses there. Otherwise, send your new email address to grantparksecurity@mindspring.com.
GPSP is looking for additional volunteers for zone captains as well as to rotate in board members to help its longtime board volunteers. Please contact Linda Jones for more information. The time and location for the annual meeting, which will be held in March or early April, will be posted electronically.
GPSP is a nonprofit corporation run by volunteers. GPSP uses that money to hire off-duty police officers to patrol the streets of Grant Park. During each patrol, the GPSP officer will usually pass each member’s house at least three times. If a member lets GPSP know that they will be out of town, additional attention is paid to their house while they are away. Since GPSP began over twenty years ago, burglaries in the neighborhood have dropped by 70-percent and some of that dramatic decrease can be attributed to the work of the GPSP officers. The more members GPSP has, the more patrol hours can be afforded, so please join! There is an online payment program. Just go to www.gpna.org and click on Security Patrol at the top. Please let GPSP know how easy/hard or useful you find the online system as it is regularly being tweaked.Thanks to Botwinick and Botwinick, CPAs, APCO Graphics Inc., E. Jones Investors (Paul Harrison), and Adams Realtors for sponsoring additional patrol hours this quarter. And thanks to Linda Jones of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage’s Intown Office for providing photocopying services this quarter.
For information about joining GPSP, please email Chris Newman grantparksecurity@mindspring.com or link to the GPSP site by going to www.gpna.org and clicking on Security Patrol at the top.