Grant Park Security Patrol

By Carol Fisk
September brought a few daytime burglaries to Grant Park. On the west side, there was a daytime burglary on Sydney near Hill. There was also a burglary on the 300 block of Grant but the time of day is unknown because the victim was out of town. On the east side of the neighborhood, there were two Friday mid-day incidents, one on the 700 block of Ormewood and one on the 700 block of Delmar. Zone 6 officers stopped a man on Moreland who had two items from the Delmar burglary in his possession. He claimed to have bought them on the street from someone else. Luckily, the victims had recorded the serial numbers, so the case is coming together with this evidence. It is worth taking the time to record your own serial numbers.
There have been some auto thefts east of the park on Cameron, Delmar and Berne. Dodge vehicles are the current favorite. For older model vehicles without an alarm system, a club type device is a good investment.
The biggest problem continues to be vehicle larcenies, primarily around the restaurants on Memorial Drive. They occur both at lunchtime and in the early evenings. The parking area outside Oakland Cemetery is another hotspot and, more recently, there have also been incidents inside the property. Some young men were observed cruising the cemetery driveways in a silver SUV and are suspected in several of those crimes.
Please call 911 if you see school-age kids roaming around during the day. Zone 3 has a truancy officer, and truants will be picked-up and returned to the school.
Thanks for your continuing support of GPSP. Just a reminder that GPSP’s quarters now start in January, April, July, and October, so a new quarter is under way. The quarterly payment is $40 per household, and the annual payment is $160. Paying early in the quarter is the best value because you will be on the patrol officers’ list longer. It is easy to pay online, but if you would 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. More members = more patrol hours!
If you see anything suspicious happening in the neighborhood at any time, please call 911. If a GPSP officer is on patrol at the time, they will hear the call go out and respond. You can also contact Zone 3’s new commander, Major Barbara Cavender, at the precinct by calling 404-624-0674. In case you are not familiar with GPSP, it is a nonprofit corporation run by volunteers. Membership costs $40 each quarter or $160 annually. GPSP uses that money to hire off-duty police officers to patrol the streets of Grant Park. During each patrol, the 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 began about twenty years ago, burglaries in the neighborhood have dropped by 70%, 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 now a convenient online payment program. Just go to www.gpna.org and click on Security Patrol at the top. Please let GPSP know your feedback with the online system as it is still being tweaked.
Thanks to Botwinick and Botwinick, CPAs, APCO Graphics Inc., 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 call Chris Newman at 404-586-9590, or email grantparksecurity@mindspring.com or link to the GPSP site by going to www.gpna.org and clicking on Security Patrol at the top.
On a personal note, this will be my last Porch Press article, because I am moving back to London in mid-October. I have thoroughly enjoyed living in Grant Park since 1993 and have welcomed the many opportunities there are to help improve the neighborhood by working with community organizations. I volunteered with GPSP soon after moving to Grant Park, because it is an organization that has a real impact on everyone’s lives. If you are looking for challenging volunteer work that will make a positive difference, GPSP would welcome your help too. There are a number of volunteer tasks ranging from the officer and zone captain positions to helping with data entry and the web site. If you would like to join the team, please send an email to grantparksecurity@mindspring.com.