A group of North Greenwood residents have taken to monitoring neighborhood crime through their online Google group.
On Saturday, the group will hold a meeting for homeowners to discuss with Police Chief Ray Moore what to do about recent crimes in that area of the city.
The meeting is scheduled for 3 p.m. Saturday at American Legion Post 29, 200 E. Claiborne Ave.
Moore said he plans to attend the meeting and congratulates the group on refusing to tolerate petty crime.
“It’s the same thing as a Neighborhood Watch program, neighbors looking after neighbors,” Moore said. “The public is our eyes and ears out there. Police officers can’t be everywhere at the same time, and if people in the neighborhood see when something is out of place, it’s important for them to take note and let us know.”
Members of the group post online about crimes and suspicious activity in their neighborhoods.
Moore doesn’t perceive recent vehicle break-ins in North Greenwood as an upswing in criminal activity, however.
“It’s not really a wave of petty crime,” he said. “It’s something that normally goes on this time of year.”
Moore said police have identified a group of suspects they believe are responsible for the bulk of vehicle break-ins that the North Greenwood Google group is concerned about, including an incident on Sunday in which three long guns were removed from an unlocked truck parked on West Jefferson Avenue.
According to a Google post by Holly Mooneyham, two men were spotted walking down Magnolia Street “pulling door handles of trucks.” One truck that was left unlocked with guns inside on West Jefferson was broken into and the guns stolen. The owner of the guns reclaimed them before the alleged thieves returned to pick them up in the alley where they were stashed.
Moore said police attempted to take prints from the vehicle and the weapons, but he was not aware of detectives’ progress in the case.
Google group member and North Greenwood resident Gary McDonald, who is involved in organizing Saturday’s meeting, said the problem of vehicle break-ins in that area is not merely a holiday season phenomenon.
“If (Chief Moore’s) position is that this is something that we need to just expect during the holiday season, I’m of the opinion that we need a new chief,” McDonald said.
McDonald said the group wants to come to “some amiable conclusion” about neighborhood crime and how to stop it.
“We need to know what we can and cannot do as citizens,” McDonald said. “And we want to know what we can expect from the police and the legal system to help stop these crimes.”
McDonald emphasized that the meeting is open only to North Greenwood homeowners whose concerns extend to property in their neighborhood.
He said carports and garages, as well as parked vehicles, have been broken into routinely in the neighborhood by thieves looking for something to sell and make money.
One post on the North Greenwood Google group’s feed claimed that police have been known to pick up perpetrators in the neighborhood, drive them across the bridge and drop them off with a warning.
Moore denied that accusation.
“They can rest assured that does not happen,” Moore said. “If we have charges on an individual, you can be assured they go to (Sheriff) Ricky Banks’ bed and breakfast.”
Still, Moore said he thinks the Google group’s activities are commendable.
“When the neighborhood decides they’re not going to put up with it any more, that makes our job easier,” Moore said.
“I just wish all neighborhoods would decide they’re not going to put up with it anymore.”
• Contact Kathryn Eastburn at 581-7235 or keastburn@gwcommonwealth.com.
