Summertime Larcenies and Burglaries/Grant Park Security Patrol

By Chris Newman
A spike in bicycle larcenies has been noted in June. A bike left unattended for even a few minutes is a tempting target for some children or adult thieves. We’ve had reports of bikes taken from front porches in the middle of the day.
Cell phone snatches continue, so be alert when out walking. Call 911 if you feel threatened.
There have been a few burglaries around the neighborhood and they are occurring in the daytime. We ask that you call 911 if you observe anyone who appears to be casing houses or circling around the block. Activate your home alarm whenever you leave the house, even for a brief time period.
Grant Park Security Patrol (GPSP) continues to remind residents and their guests to keep cars clean.  Also, there will be many visitors to the park and the zoo during vacations and increased traffic presents an opportunity for thieves.  Do not park vehicles on side streets when attending the Braves games. Atlanta Police Department (APD) officers advise all patrons to park in a secure lot. APD officers made an arrest of a man who was breaking in to a car on Hill Street. He had in his possession some items that had just been taken from a vehicle on Bryan Street near Boulevard. He has been charged with two counts of entering auto.
Lighting and public safety: please call the city public works or Georgia Power if you have a street light out or cycling on and off. Each one of these conditions requires a different fix so let them know which is the problem. Contact numbers can be found on the Grant Park web site. Light up your front porch.
With our current level of support we have been able to add an additional 8 hours of patrols. We are also continuing with the weekend evening patrols Friday to Sunday. Sgt. Bailey, Officer Davis and Officer Sluss will be here from about 6 until 10 or 11pm, and occasionally from 10pm until 2am. After the baseball games they will spend time along Georgia Avenue and Atlanta Avenue to monitor the pedestrian traffic.  Our officers log in to Zone 6 dispatch and respond to all 911 calls in our neighborhood. It is important that you call 911 if you see suspicious activities.
Thanks to all our members for your continuing support of GPSP.   The second quarter payment of $40 per household is due now. Members who pay annually will be sent an email reminder when payment is due.   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.
We have converted to an email notification system so it is important to let us know of any changes of email addresses. Residents who wish to receive crime notices and safety tips should sign up at the gpna.org site and be sure to include your zip code. If you are still receiving a paper copy of the newsletter and invoice, we ask that you consider the switch. It has greatly streamlined our volunteer hours.
In case you are not familiar with GPSP, it is a non-profit 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 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% 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 how easy/hard or useful you find the online system as it is regularly being tweaked.  Thanks to Botwinick and Botwinick, Paul Harrison of Edward Jones Investing, Oldfield HOA, One Georgia HOA, Enclave HOA and ADAMS Realtors for sponsoring additional patrol hours.