InTucker Magazine

On the Beat

On the Beat is written monthly by DeKalb Police Sgt. J. Obester. Lt. J.A. Ridlin is Tucker’s liaison to the DeKalb County Police Department and can be contacted by email at jaridlin@dekalbcountyga.gov or by phone at (678) 597-9040.

Over the years, the question I have been asked the most is “When should I call 911?” As Lt. Berg wrote in several On the Beat articles last year, the quick answer to this question is to call whenever you see or hear something suspicious. While the definition of suspicious may be different based on an individual’s own knowledge and experience, we in law enforcement are fortunate that the laws in our state and in our country give us specific guidance and circumstances where a legal stop or citizen encounter can be made. In most of our encounters, police officers find no need to go beyond a friendly conversation, what we call a citizen stop. Indeed, our job is quite mundane most of the time!

The second question I most frequently come across is “I was a victim of X crime, should I make a police report?” This scenario requires a more nuanced answer, for it opens up an obvious second question: what can the police do after a crime has been committed? The good news is that there is quite a bit that we can do after-the-fact.

You may not be aware of this, but the Dekalb County Police Department has several officers and supervisors who are specifically tasked with analyzing crime statistics. These specially trained officers spend countless hours looking at crime reports, at both the micro and macro levels, in order to improve our Department’s allocation of resources and manpower. Our Certified Crime Analysists look at each and every report made by our police officers, such as those who work on Tucker Precinct’s Day, Evening, and Morning Watch teams.

At the micro level, our Crime Analysts work in tandem with our diligent Criminal Investigation Division (CID) Detectives, attempting to find similarities and commonalities among crimes reported within and across certain neighborhoods. While our detectives catch and solve a good number of reported crimes based on their own expertise, occasionally our Crime Analysts will spot something that can be helpful to our precinct-based detectives. This teamwork-based approach has resulted in our detectives having a historically higher-than-average case closure rate than those working in other urban departments.

On the macro level, our Crime Analysts compile crime statistics from across our four precincts (Tucker, North Central, South, and East). They compile these statistics into reports sent to our Command Staff and to those of us who work directly supervising our beat officers, such as myself and my supervisor, Tucker Precinct Day Watch Lieutenant Smith. We utilize these reports on a daily basis to reallocate our officers – and any supplementary officers working overtime – to areas that have been shown to have a higher crime rate or those communities experiencing specific crime-related issues, such as the entering automobile sprees I discussed in last month’s On the Beat.

More recently, the Department restructured our four precinct-based Neighborhood Enforcement Teams (NET) to be supervised under one command. This adjustment will allow for a quicker and more nuanced response to those issues identified by our Crime Analysts and Precinct Commanders. These NET team supervisors and officers are the best of the best – individuals who have proven to have the determination and drive to tackle reported crime-related issues affecting our communities. Notice that I said reported crimes. As stated, we need this information for a variety of reasons, most importantly so that we can respond quickly and effectively to a known issue.

If you would like to see for yourself some of the crimes occurring in your community, I recommend looking at Crimemapping.com. This website congregates crime reports from our Department’s computerized reporting system (RMS) into an easy-to-view, searchable, geographically based civilian website. While it does not provide specific names, addresses, and other personal information, this website does provide enough information to see if crimes have occurred near a specific location over a specified period of time. After viewing Crimemapping.com, if you have any concerns or questions, please reach out to our Public Education Specialist or to our City of Tucker Liaison Officer, Lieutenant J. Ridling. He can be reached via email at jaridling@dekalbcountyga.com.

Finally, I have some good news and a bit of sad news. The good news is that our Tucker Precinct Detectives have been very busy recently, making two arrests for business burglaries and several arrests related to the entering automobile sprees occurring throughout the City. After executing several search warrants, our detectives also recovered several stolen firearms and vehicles. Kudos to them!

The sad news is that I just heard that Donna Mann, our Precinct’s Public Education Specialist, is retiring this month. For those that have met her, we are all better people because of her deep empathy for others and her hard work at Tucker Precinct. She will be sorely missed!