Grant Park Security Patrol (GPSP)

By Carol Fisk

The cold weather kept the criminals at bay for a while, but the warmer weather is bringing them out again. No house burglaries have been reported recently, but February saw several car break-ins at the following locations: Grant Street near Memorial Drive, the Mattress Lofts, the alley behind Boulevard, Ormond Streets west of Hill Street, and Grant and Cherokee near Georgia Avenue. Please do not leave any items in your vehicle that might tempt a criminal. There were also two car thefts on Grant Street and Oakland Avenue near Memorial Drive. The GPSP patrol officers have noticed a few cars left idling in the morning, presumably to warm up. It is wise to avoid this practice, which violates state law and provides a tempting target for car thieves.

Thanks for your continuing support of GPSP. A new quarter will start in April. Please pay your dues by the end of March to make sure you stay on the patrol list for the spring quarter. 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.

The GPSP annual meeting will take place on Saturday, April 2 at 2:00pm in the Grant Park Recreation Center. At this meeting, the three officers will be elected or re-elected. Kristi Smith, Chris Newman, and Linda Jones are willing to run again as President, Treasurer, and Secretary respectively, but please email the GPSP if you are interested in taking over any of the positions. The annual meeting is also an opportunity to discuss crime issues, to learn more about the GPSP, and to meet your neighbors or please plan to attend.

Please remember 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.

If you see anything suspicious happening in the neighborhood at any time, please call 911. If GPSP officers are on patrol at the time, they will hear the call go out and respond. You can also contact Zone 3 Commander Major Reginal Mitchell on his cell phone at 404-273-8178 or by email at rmitchell@atlantaga.gov.

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 GPSP officer will usually pass each member’s house at least three times. If members let 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%. 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. 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 provide feedback on the online system as it is regularly being tweaked.

Thanks to Botwinick and Botwinick, CPAs, APCO Graphics Inc., and Adams Realtors for sponsoring additional patrol hours this quarter. Thanks to Linda Jones of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage’s Intown Office for providing photocopying services this quarter.

For information about joining GPSP, please contact Chris Newman at 404-586-9590 or grantparksecurity@mindspring.com, or go to www.gpna.org and click on Security Patrol at the top.