Precinct 5 PENS September 2020
Welcome to this month’s PENS, Police Email Notification System bulletin. This monthly bulletin is brought to you from the Cobb County Police, Precinct 5 Criminal Investigations Unit (CIU5) and is designed to keep you aware of safety alerts and crime trends in your area and measures you can take to keep you and your family safe.
Public Safety Topic of the Month
Safety Tips for Fall Break Crime Prevention
- Never advertise you are leaving town: Don’t broadcast that you and your family will be away. Wait until after your trip to share updates and photos on social media. Remind your children not to Facebook, blog, or tweet your family’s absence from home.
- Create the illusion of occupancy: While away cancel delivery of mail and newspaper or arrange for a neighbor to pick them up.
- Lights: Put inside and outside lights on a timer to establish a look of occupancy. A timer on your TV– so it’s on when you’d normally be watching TV is also a good idea.
- Lock all windows and doors: Keep valuables away from windows, lower blinds and close curtains so passers-by can’t view these items. Remember, a significant amount of crime can be deterred if home owners do not create easy opportunities for the criminal element.
- Garage: Keep your car locked and the windows up even if its parked in the garage, and take your keys with you. If your house is broken into, there is no need to provide the thief with a car. You may also want to un-plug your garage door opener and lock the garage door while out of town.
- Trust a neighbor: Make sure a dependable neighbor watches your house, has a house key, and has your cell number in case of any home emergency. Also make sure your neighbor has a way to shut off any alarms.
- Utilities: It’s always a good idea to turn back the temperature of your water heater, shut off the water to your washing machine (washing machine hose breaks are at the top of the list when it comes to home damage costs).
Current Crime Trends
Ladies and Gentlemen, our current crime trends continue to be Entering Autos. Along with the overnight Entering Autos we have seen an increase of daytime vehicle break-ins at the local parks and gyms. Some of these Entering Autos have also taken place at Kennesaw Mountain National Park. While people are out on the walking trails their vehicles have been broken into. If any Financial Transaction Cards are taken the suspects immediately go to local retail stores and spend as much money as they can. So once you notice that any Financial Cards are missing call and have them canceled/frozen.
PLEASE remove all valuables especially guns from your vehicles every time you park and leave the vehicle. Also, double-check that ALL vehicle doors are locked.
If you observe someone breaking into vehicles do not approach them and immediately call 911 from a safe place. Provide the 911 operator with an accurate description of the suspects, involved vehicles, and what direction the suspect is going. NO property is worth getting hurt over.
Cobb County Camera Registry
The Cobb County Police Camera Registration program is a police/community video partnership that operates on a voluntary basis with homeowners, neighborhoods and business owners who own private video surveillance systems. We encourage both businesses and residents to register their cameras online by completing the form below.
This program is intended to let our officers know where cameras are active in the county in case a crime occurs. It is not intended for active surveillance, and officers will not have direct access to homeowners' cameras. Those who register a camera will be contacted if a crime occurs in the vicinity of that camera.
Information provided by residents and businesses will be maintained in a secure database.
If you have not already signed up to receive the monthly PENS updates, please subscribe. Feel free to forward this e-mail to your HOA members and local businesses.
PENS is also sending out bulletins and alerts through its partnership with Nextdoor.com. Discover if your neighborhood is already signed up so you may join. If not, they will provide you with the necessary information.
Stay Safe,
Det. Lieutenant J.B Wade
Det. Sergeant W.R. Pettitt
Criminal Investigation Unit Pct. 5
4640 Dallas Highway
Powder Springs, GA 30127
(770) 499-4578