What Does the Patrol Do?
All residents of Morningside Lenox Park benefit from the added security provided by the Morningside Security Patrol (MSP). The Patrol is staffed by off-duty and retired Atlanta Police Department (APD) Officers and is funded by MLPA Security Plus memberships.
The primary purpose of the MSP is to augment our regular APD services and home security systems. The MSP provides regular patrols each week (about 60 hours) and adds extra shifts as needed (e.g., when there has been a string of car break-ins or burglaries). Officers are in uniform and drive a marked car. Because the officers are drawn from the APD, they have full arrest powers in the areas they patrol and are able to intervene in suspicious activities and crimes in progress. In many instances, when crimes occur during an MSP shift, MSP officers have been the first responders to the 911 calls (they have police radios). MSP officers frequently assist on-duty APD officers patrolling in the neighborhood when an incident is in progress.
Here are the three main MSP responsibilities that help keep our neighborhood safe:
- Doing vacation house checks for Security Plus Members
- Patrolling the neighborhood on designated routes and scanning QR codes
- Conducting directed patrols as needed.
Vacation House Checks for Security Plus Members: Morningside has 3500+ houses and more than 60 streets. Holiday weeks are an incredibly busy time of the year for vacation house checks. On a typical holiday week, our officers check 70-80 houses every day for residents who are on vacation. They don’t just drive by; they go up the driveway to the back of the house; they look for packages on the porch and move them out of sight; they move trash cans to the driveways and backs of the houses; they call the owners when something looks suspicious; they send a daily email to the homeowner with details about their visit; etc. One member recently reported that an officer had stopped by her house and ask for ID when she came home a day early and had not informed the patrol.
Other Checks: The officers work with neighbors to address a variety of problems. MSP assists the neighborhood with security and traffic management for events like the Centennial Gala. They check out abandoned cars and may have them towed. They check out cars parked on the sidewalk or on the grass in the yard, alarms going off, individuals panhandling at busy intersections, solicitors going door-to-door, and many other situations. They walk into camps established by homeless persons in the Morningside Nature Preserve and under bridges in the neighborhood (e.g., Lenox Road, Johnson Road); they talk to the campers about available services and inform them that it is illegal for them to stay in these locations; they check back and work with the City to facilitate the removal of the trash left behind.
Patrolling and Scanning QR Codes: We used to hear “I never see the patrol.” We used to get complaints that we had no way to hold the officers accountable for patrolling in the neighborhood. We now have a QR system where the officers scan codes in all 4 quadrants of the neighborhood during their shift. This system forces them to have a presence on nearly every street. They cannot just drive where they want. All 90+ codes are scanned every 48 hours, most more than once.
Directed Patrols: Officers usually have 1-3 locations where they sit for up to 20 minutes during the shift to watch for suspicious persons or activity. These “directed patrols” are called for when an area has had recent problems, usually an uptick in car break-ins. The patrol routinely does directed patrols along Cheshire Bridge and the Highland corridor. During the past fall, the patrol checked the parking lot at Haygood Church, where there had been reports of cars doing donuts late at night.
To access the services of the patrol, join the MLPA with a Security Plus Membership.
