By Joy Lukachick
Chattanooga Times Free Press
DALTON, Ga. — Lt. Chris Cooke slows his patrol car as he weaves through the parked cars and scans the dimly lighted street.
For the last few weeks, police have seen an uptick in burglaries and thefts along Underwood Street and within the block of Avenues F and E in downtown Dalton, Cooke said. Most of the crimes are related to drug traffic in the area, he said.
In response, Cooke ordered officers on his late-night shift last week to patrol the two streets heavily on foot and in their cars.
“Putting as many resources in one spot where we know there’s problems, that’s where we see success,” Cooke said.
Since the Dalton Police Department redivided the city into three districts last summer, police have tackled the most-frequent crimes more aggressively, police Chief Jason Parker said.
Police in each district — East, West and South — meet weekly, along with probation and parole officers, to map out the worst crime areas and identify what crimes are increasing, he said.
When property crimes rose significantly in 2010 — from 234 incidents in 2009 to 292 incidents last year — targeting the problem areas became a driving topic during weekly meetings, Parker said.
"[Property crimes are] close to 85 percent of calls we handle, and they’re the most difficult to solve,” he said.
For this year, the police department’s goal is to reduce burglary and robbery rates by 5 percent by the end of the year.
When police identify an area that has a spike in crime, officers spend at least a week saturating that area during different shifts, Cooke said. During the day, officers also knock on doors and get to know the residents, he said.
So far, police said, the strategy is working.
January crime statistics show burglaries and robberies in Dalton slightly decreased from last year during the same month. Robbery decreased from four to two reports and burglaries from 23 to 20 reports. But thefts rose in January from 59 to 70, records show.
Police have prevented some crimes, Parker said.
Cooke said that, when criminals notice a police presence in an area over time, they often go somewhere else.
Copyright 2011 Chattanooga Publishing Company