Athens Police Chief Tom Pyle spent almost an hour Tuesday night speaking with local residents who want to know how they can make a positive impact in their community.
Pyle spoke at East Elementary School to residents from the East side of Athens, discussing the possibility of the city starting a crime watch, which would allow citizens to actively report tips to police.
“It’s like a jigsaw puzzle,” Pyle said about solving crimes. “Often, it’s a simple matter of putting pieces together. Sometimes, however, we are missing some of the pieces. We pick up those pieces from tips in the community. This is how we solve crimes and why we need a crime watch."
Pyle said so far this year the city has had about 500 to 550 thefts — on par with the city’s average of about 900 a year during the past few years. He also reported that there have been 136 burglaries.
“I promise, we will never be in a shortage of work in law enforcement,” Pyle said. “Unless we do something, crime rates will continue to rise. Most of these burglaries are occurring for people to support their drug abuse.”
Video surveillance has been extremely helpful in solving crimes, Pyle said, and he encouraged all in attendance to put a surveillance system around their houses as both a deterrent for crime as well as a way to catch criminals.
He said the department has used video footage from ATM cameras to help solve a homicide.
“It’s relatively inexpensive and does a great job in deterring crime,” Pyle said. “Especially if it is known that the cameras are there.”
He said he does not want citizens to feel that calls to the department are a nuisance, adding that the department’s job is to serve the community.
“If people see something out of the ordinary in their neighborhood, they should always call us and let us know,” Pyle said. “You have to make it known that people in your neighborhood are active in stopping and preventing crime, and the criminals will look elsewhere, out of Athens.”
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