Original Precincts
New Police PrecinctsEffective 07/16/2007
http://www.dunwoodynorth.org/images/New_Precinct_Boundaries_Text_Maps.pdf
A few weeks ago I signed up for DeKalb County's Neighborhood Watch mailing list and I have been getting their informational messages ever since. Today I received a notice that there is a major restructuring of the police precincts whereby it appears that Dunwoody went from six precincts to now just three. I have attached a link to the notice above. There was no explanation on why the change took place or if it is beneficial to the residents, it was just the facts as cold as Joe Friday could deliver them. I went searching through the previous messages and noticed that I also received an invitation to Meet the Chief at the Perimeter Mall parking lot on Saturday, October 27th at 10:00 a.m. Hopefully I won't have to wait that long to learn about how this change will affect our police coverage.
The Dunwoody North Civic Association, Neighborhood Watch Coordinator will look into this and will report back any and all findings.
Hopefully I won't have to wait until October to ask Chief Bolton how this change improves the services provided by the County.
The Dunwoody North Civic Association, Neighborhood Watch Coordinator will look into this and will report back any and all findings.
Hopefully I won't have to wait until October to ask Chief Bolton how this change improves the services provided by the County.
Dear Major Gilstrap,
ReplyDeleteMy name is John Heneghan and I am President of the Dunwoody North Civic Association, which represents the more then 1,000 homes in the Dunwoody North Communities. I recently contacted Mr. Fowler for increased speed & traffic enforcement in the residential areas of our neighborhood so as to slow down vehicles who use our residential streets as a cut through to I-285. I have not seen or heard of this enforcement happening but if you have been here, thank you. A couple of weeks ago, I received the e-mail below describing the precinct changes and have a few questions that maybe you could answer for me?
In reviewing, the old & new maps it appears that the Dunwoody area has been consolidated from 6 beats to now only 3, is this the case and how does it affect my neighborhoods police coverage, patrols & services? Has the number of officers assigned to the North Precinct been reduced because of these boundary changes? What is the current staffing levels of the North Precinct as it relates to the maximum staffing authorized? I also noticed that a number of cars now working in the North Precinct are no longer identified as being North Precinct cars. Has the precinct identification of these cars been a problem for the Department or has the now lack of identification made it easier for these vehicle to service the other districts as the need occurs? Just wondering about this change?
Your e-mail below didn’t explain the reasoning for the changes nor how it affects my residents services and I am interested in these details.
In order to save bandwidth, I have copied your attachments to my servers and have provided a link below. I have also attached a link to our neighborhood blog where by I have raised this issue and had Ms. Lisa Unkefer my Neighborhood Watch Coordinator attempt to get these questions answered by Mr. Fowler. Since I have not had a reply on the subject, I figured I would directly to you on this matter.
http://www.dunwoodynorth.org/images/New_Precinct_Boundaries_Text_Maps.pdf
http://dunwoodynorth.blogspot.com/2007/09/did-dekalb-police-just-cut-dunwoodys.html
Thanks,
John Heneghan, President
Dunwoody North Civic Association
Dear Major Gilstrap,
ReplyDeleteThank you for the invitation, I look forward to our visit. My neighborhood watch coordinator Lisa Dierks-Unkefer called me tonight and she is excited to sit down with you as well. I have also offered an invitation to the rest of my board but on short notice, I do not believe there would be many able to make the meeting. As you have requested a meeting as soon as possible, maybe you are available this afternoon (Friday) around 4 pm. If not then, maybe on Monday at the same time or if you could please let me know your schedule & I will work around it. My work schedule is semi-flexible and I could be available in the middle of the day if so needed.
I have quickly reviewed the Road to Success document and it was too much to comprehend in one sitting, though on the surface it is a major & worthwhile undertaking. The one thing that jumps out at me is that the numbers clearly show that the department is woefully understaffed, whereby good officers are probably over worked therefore retention is probably now a serious problem. I hope the political structure is serious about putting fourth the necessary resources to implement this plan.
Before we meet maybe tomorrow, maybe I should tell you a little about myself. I am a manager for the U.S. Department of Transportation who oversees an office of seven investigators, which inspect & cite chemical companies in an eight state area for shipping hazardous materials incorrectly. My staff covers a wide area and is also spread very, very thin. I have a Bachelors in Public Administration / Business Law whereby I concentrated in Criminal Justice Administration and have attended numerous advanced managerial training courses on law enforcement. All of that being said, I know the predicament you are in since you did not personally cause the under staffing (this is a purely political issue) and that you are implementing policies & procedures to the best of your ability to ensure the safety of all North DeKalb’s residents. I truly understand that fact.
You may have recognized my name recently because I have been quite vocal about the operations at Brook Run, including security issues where I believe I may have communicated with you in the past. What you may not know about me is that I have been vocal on a number of subjects and or pushed for change in my local community for the last ten years. For example, a number of years ago Dunwoody was listed in Money magazine as a dangerous crime ridden community and I was able to get that statistic changed by challenging the statistics. A couple of years ago we had a registered sex offender who moved into our community and I fought the DeKalb Sheriff’s office (who informed this individual it was OK to live there) about how they measure distances between schools / places where children congregate and the persons home. I fight for what I believe in and trust me when I tell you that I do not have a vendetta against the County, I don’t; I just happen to live here and the County is the only one for me to hold responsible. As a resident of a community, as well as a public servant, I just believe that when I have the ability to make a difference, I have a responsibility to do so. I also believe that transparency in Government breeds self-corrective behavior therefore between these two maxims, I tend to use the public media to inform my residents & publish my concerns, as well as public documents when available, in order to keep the political structure from taking advantage of the citizens they were elected to serve.
My neighborhood has had a rash of break-ins, home robberies, petty theft, and vandalism in the last year and Al Fowler has been a dutiful public servant keeping us informed and talking to our civic meetings about public safety. He is wonderful and we (you) are lucky to have him. I guess it is just that it appears to me that crime is rising in our neighborhood and I am hearing from residents that it has taken up to three hours for an officer to arrive after a break-in to take a report. With what also appears to be a lack of speed & road enforcement to me, I guess I took the e-mail describing the district changes personally, affecting both my families & communities safety.
I look forward to meeting with you and publishing a retraction to my blog entry if so warranted and in doing so; I would like to publish the document you provided if it is a final copy and allowed. I spent quite a bit of time on your webpage and could not find the document or any other reference to it.
We can discuss this tomorrow or whenever you are available to meet. I will be attempting to check messages on this e-mail account tomorrow to see if you have replied. If you would like to call me to let me know your schedule, please do so.
Thanks,
John Heneghan, President
Dunwoody North Civic Association
Dear Major Gilstrap,
ReplyDeleteThe Dunwoody North Civic Association would like to thank you, Captain Yarbrough and the Community Relations Specialist, Mr. Al Fowler for spending over an hour and a half with Lisa Dierks-Unkefer and myself discussing the current and proposed future structure of the DeKalb Police Department. During our meeting, you clarified the press release maps, which showed the Dunwoody Area going from six patrols down to three. The reality is that there are only three patrols normally assigned to Dunwoody and the other patrol assignments shown on the old map were just radio log in numbers for those times when a second officer is actually assigned to an area. You explained the expansion of the North Precinct; south of the Cities of Doraville & Chamblee and that you were allocated an additional nine officers to cover this expanded area. You explained the layout of the Department and the fact that special operation officers (for example, speed enforcement officers) are assigned by Police Headquarters on an as available basis and that you have little control of these resources.
The two main topics we discussed were allocation of manpower resources and the need for better two way communication. You & I discussed the high vs. low crime areas of the North Precinct and the realities of needing more officers in high crime areas in order to protect the citizens vs. the wants of the citizens in the low crime areas to be better served. With limited resources, both the needs & the wants cannot always be served equally. We discussed the option of having local crime prevention patrols that are currently operating in several DeKalb neighborhoods and the costs & benefits associated with it. We understand that it is the lack of sufficient manpower including the very low retention rate of the current officers which is the main driving force behind Chief Bolton’s Road to Success Action Plan proposal to the County Administration. The proposal states that the Department is understaffed by more than eight hundred (800) officers according to the national average. It also suggests that in order to retain the officers currently on staff, as well as recruit new officers; pay & benefits will need to be greatly improved.
We talked quite a bit about communication. When I stated that I attempted to find the “Road to Success Action Plan” on the DeKalb Police Department’s website; you informed me that the website was currently under redevelopment and that major improvements were in the works. You then talked about Interactive Community Policing and the fact that crime statistics will be available to the general public on the web and that an electronic map would display exactly what happened where. We talked about the possibility of the North Precinct writing monthly or bi-monthly articles in the Dunwoody Crier or other local newspapers so to inform the public of crimes happening in the area, tips for safety as well as changes happening in the Police administration. I asked about speed enforcement for vehicles that cut though our neighborhood side streets in order to get to I-285 and you stated that only specific roads are allowed for speed enforcement and HQ (Special Operations) normally handled that specific enforcement duty with motorcycle officers. I asked if normal patrol officers were allowed to do speed enforcement (radar or laser) and you stated that they were if they were adequately trained and had the equipment, but that the equipment was lacking. Instead of speed enforcement, you stated that your officers will monitor a problem street for stop sign compliance and that sometimes this tact will get the same desired result. I agreed with you but questioned the current lack of speed enforcement in school zones and you agreed with me that more should be done and that you are doing the best you can under the circumstances.
I asked about Brook Run Park and the communication between the Police Department and the contracted security staff. You stated that there was no formal process but that communication does flow. Then there was something that shocked me. I asked about speed enforcement in Brook Run Park and you and Captain Yarbrough both stated that you were not allowed to do it there because of the way that the laws was written. I questioned this on various legal angles, I even quoted park regulations which prohibit speed in excess of 20 miles per hour in County parks (DeKalb Code 17-113 Maximum Speed in Parks) but you stated that you would have to research this subject and get back to me. If you report that you are not allowed to do speed enforcement in the County Park based on a specific regulation, I will personally petition the Board of Commissioners to change the law so that you can then perform this important function throughout the County.
You talked about the need for the community to communicate better with the police department, whereby citizens should not be hesitant to call 911 for any reason when they feel something is not right. You admitted the need for the police to take the first step by improving its own public outreach in order to inform the community of the wants & needs of the Department. You stated that this will be done by writing newspaper articles, improving the Neighborhood Watch program by coordinating with the newly hired Interactive Community Police Officers, which will be coming on line once the next academy graduates. You & Al Fowler thanked us for being one of the more active neighborhood watch programs in the North Precinct and taking the time to share our concerns with you. I thanked you for your personal willingness to work with the community and I applauded you on the professionalism & dedication that your officers exhibit on a daily basis.
I look forward to hearing from you on the park speed enforcement issue & for the good of the County; I hope that the CEO & the Board of Commissioners aggressively fill all current police vacancies and thoroughly review Chief Bolton’s Action Plan for implementation where appropriate.
Finally Major Gilstrap, I would like to commend you personally, you sir are an exemplary public servant and the Citizen’s of DeKalb are lucky to have such an officer looking after us.
I look forward to working with you in the future.
Sincerely,
John Heneghan, President
Dunwoody North Civic Association