By Duane Barbati
Alamogordo Daily News
ALAMOGORDO, N.M. — The Alamogordo Department of Public Safety on Thursday unveiled their new A.T.A.C. Network or Alamogordo Theft and Crime Network that alerts businesses of crimes being committed in the city.
ADPS director Sam Trujillo unveiled the website at the White Sands Rotary Club’s weekly meeting.
The new crime alert system cost the department $8,900, but the Alamogordo Veterans of Foreign Wars donated $4,500, Severn Trent Services donated $3,500 and King’s Treasure Thrift Store chipped in $1,000 to get the site operational.
Trujillo said maintenance for the website would cost $1,000 per year.
“We didn’t have a budget to move forward with the program,” he said. “The local businesses stepped forward. We are in operation. Without the businesses donating the money, we couldn’t have moved any further with the program.”
The site, http://atac-network.com , will alert area businesses of potential criminal activities being committed against them such as criminals passing counterfeit currency, shoplifting or stealing copper wire from construction sites. Property crimes are burglaries, larcenies, shoplifting, criminal damage and vehicle thefts. Violent crimes are homicides, criminal sexual penetration, robberies and domestic violence.
People can visit the website and find crime prevention tips, crime statistics and contact information for ADPS via e-mail or their main telephone number.
Businesses wishing to join the network to receive alerts can do so online or contact ADPS at 439-4300.
For businesses that join the network, the website will provide mug shots of suspects arrested, arrests log information of suspected criminals and e-mail alerts of crimes being committed in the area.
King’s Treasure Thrift Store, 1500 N. White Sands Blvd., experienced several break-ins between Dec. 27, 2008, and Jan. 11, 2009. ADPS officers conducted surveillance on the business and found the same man had committed the burglaries. King’s Treasure helps support the Pregnancy Help Center, 1222 N. White Sands Blvd.
King’s Treasure executive director Stan Richardson said he is appreciative of ADPS implementing the network.
“I think getting the word out quicker to store owners will be helpful to businesses,” Richardson said. “With the counterfeit money, sometimes it’s two or three days before they can really get the word out to everybody. This way, as soon as ADPS receives the information, they can put it online and get it out through e-mail alerts.”
He said he feels Trujillo has been a good leader in the community.
“I’ve been here seven years now,” Richardson said. “It seems to me that Trujillo is really trying to keep our community safe. He seems to be taking some really creative measures to stay ahead of the game and to stay on top of the crime in our community.”
Trujillo said he found a similar program to A.T.A.C. Network being used in Albuquerque.
“Albuquerque was seeing a reduction in violent crime that was happening in their community,” he said. “Albuquerque and Las Cruces were getting the big box stores involved in the program. We found there was a significant interest in the program not from the big box stores, but the small mom and pop stores in Alamogordo.”
Trujillo said Alamogordo’s crime rate is low compared to other cities and the national average.
“We do have a low crime rate in our community,” he said. “We still have a lot of crime happening. We’re constantly looking at ways to help reduce that crime. We want to stay ahead of the problem.”
Trujillo said the department found that most of the criminals in Alamogordo who were committing violent crimes were also committing property crime.
“Last year, we had more than 1,700 crimes that involved property,” he said. “It averages to 4 1/2 per day of property crime. We also had four homicides in 2009. We found that we’ve been leaders in the attack on crime.”
The website links businesses through the Internet with ADPS, alerting them to crimes being committed in the community.
Trujillo said ADPS is trying to build partnerships with local businesses through the website.
“Here in Alamogordo, we’ve had strong partnerships with our business community,” he said. “We communicate with our businesses on a regular basis, but it’s been person to person. We’ve had a difficult time getting the word out to everybody. It has not been immediate. We’re developing a crime watch-type system.”
Trujillo said ADPS will be able to communicate with local businesses better.
“The alert system on the website will be able to alert businesses quickly about criminal activity,” he said. “It’s so businesses can be watchful for these type of events. Hopefully, we’ll get the telephone call by the time we have the second victim instead of the fifth or 10th victim later.”
Trujillo said the system helps officers to better monitor repeat criminals.
“We have individuals right now in our community that we’ve arrested 28 times,” he said. “An officer can watch this person walk into a store and know exactly what’s going to happen. We can wait in the parking lot and we’ll be making an arrest. Business owners and managers didn’t know about these individuals. We want to get one step ahead of these crimes.”
Copyright 2011 Alamogordo Daily News, a MediaNews Group Newspape