Garden Hills continues to have minimum criminal activity while the Buckhead area and Cheshire Bridge area continue to have more activity. Our Patrol provided 186 hours of service in the month of December and conducted 30 home checks.
The homeless continue to have a presence in the neighborhood and unfortunately the Patrol has nowhere to send them. These individuals are drifting over from the Cheshire Bridge area. The Patrol was alerted to a grocery cart in the driveway of the empty house at 419 Brentwood. The back door was unsecured, but no one was in the building. The Patrol secured the house and returned the cart to Publix at the Peach.
We had an unsuccessful attempted vehicle theft on January 15th around midnight in the 2800 block of Alpine Road. The homeowner astutely activated his alarm which scared off the perp, but unfortunately the perp came back. Zone II responded to both incidents, but were unable to apprehend the perp. The perp has not been back.
A note of appreciation to the 244 neighbors that contributed to Holiday Collection. Garden Hills joined several other neighborhoods to provide a Chick-Fil-A Gift Card to each Zone II Officer to express our appreciation for their service.
Zone II achieved a 3% reduction in Crime in 2023 which is very commendable on top of the 14% reduction in 2020 and 7% reduction in 2021.This is quite an accomplishment as the staffing has not substantially changed while the Buckhead population has increased along with the number of visitors to Buckhead. Congratulations Zone II.
Our Zone Commander, A.A. Mitchell, was recognized as Zone Commander of the Year, and it is well deserved recognition in light of the crime reductions during his Watch. There were two areas in which crime increased- shoplifting (up 33%) and auto theft (up 7%). Many of the merchants won’t prosecute which makes it impossible for the Police to control the problem plus the merchants are not anxious to implement loss prevention programs. The theft of vehicles was partially driven by the ease of stealing older Hyundai automobiles. Evidently there is a video on the internet that provided instructions on how to compromise the ignition system.
Changes- effective February 8, Major Mitchell will be moving to Police HQ to command the Community Services Div., Special Operation Section which includes SWAT, Mounted Patrol, the Motorcycle Unit and the Air Unit (choppers). Our sincere appreciation to Major Mitchell for his leadership and service to Garden Hills and Zone II. Our current Assistant Zone Commander, Captain Vayens, will be promoted to Major and assume command of Zone II. Your support of the Security Patrol helps keep Garden Hills a safer neighborhood.
Charles Meriwether