Crime & Safety

Grant Park Steps Up Public Safety Efforts, Outreach

Historic neighborhood to expand security patrol and take other steps following recent crimes

Chris Newman has had his car broken into three times since moving to Grant Park 30 years ago.

And one morning, the family home was burglarized while his son was asleep.

Still, Newman, who is chairman of the Grant Park Neighborhood Association's Public Safety Committee, remains a booster for the neighborhood of some 2,000 households.

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"Having raised three children here, I feel very good about this community," Newman said. "I feel it's a great place to live."

The string of high profile armed robberies and other crimes that have hit Grant Park, Benteen Park and Candler Park in recent weeks hasn't changed his stance.

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But those incidents have sparked renewed interest in the 20-year-old Grant Park Security Patrol program, which hires off-duty Atlanta police officers to patrol the area, he said.

The crimes have also brought in some new dues paying households who pay $40 per quarter or $150 a year to support the program.

"Unfortunately, a lot of people, they wait until a series of problems occur, but we have noticed an uptick in the last two weeks," Newman said. "I think we had maybe 10 or 15 new members."

The group's membership historically hovers around 200 households but swelled to about 400 after last year's the highly publicized Jan. 7 murder of popular bartender John Henderson at the former Standard Food & Spirits on Memorial Drive.

"There will be a series of very much publicized crimes and then all of the sudden membership goes up by 30 percent," he said.

Membership fell off since then — partly due to some families tightening their belts in the recession and a greater sense of security.

But the recent events, which include home invasions in Grant Park and neighboring Benteen Park, has the Public Safety Committee stepping up efforts ranging from expanding the Safety Patrol hours to include weekends, to planning a public safety seminar in January or February for residents.

The Safety Patrol, whose main focus is curbing daytime break-ins, is a crucial component of those efforts. For now, off-duty officers patrol during the week from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Those officers don't replace the on-duty patrols.

But the on-duty beat officer assigned to the area of the city that includes Grant Park, spends a fair amount of time responding to other calls in other neighborhoods, Newman said.

Other efforts include stepped up news alerts to residents letting them know about trends Security Patrol officers notice, when criminals with a connection to the neighborhood are about to be released from jail, and other safety-related information.

Lauren Rocereta, vice president of the Grant Park Neighborhood Association and one of her neighbors, Michael Connelly, are spearheading efforts to revive a neighborhood watch group.

They've sent out requests via Facebook, through the neighborhood association's Web site to sign up volunteer block captains. Thay also will be making direct pitches to Grant Park residents via e-mail.

Rocereta said the goal behind the watch revival, which they expect to launch after the New Year, is twofold: They want to provide as many watchful eyes as possible to ensure safety and strengthen neighborly ties.

"It draws neighbors together and creates a sense of community," she said. To that end, they plan non-crime related activies such as block parties and other events to reinforce that sense of community, Rocereta said.

"It's a very complex, multi-faceted approach," Newman said. "To make a community a safe place to be it starts with having an officer on the streets, but it also starts with people being informed but not paranoid or hysterical and then it goes from there."


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