Lisa Borders, the current Atlanta City Council President and candidate for mayor was the victim of a home break-in this week. According to news reports she was home at the time of the burglary. The intruders got away before the police arrived. She posted on the twitter that she was "Ok", and thanks everyone for the well wishes. When the local news ran the reports of the break-in you could see several Atlanta Police personnel fingerprinting and investigating the incident.
Exactly how many people were assigned to this burglary? I know people that have had their homes broken into, I've been a victim as well. I've even been in a Subway restaurant when it was robbed. Not once in any of those incidents did Atlanta police send the fingerprinting unit to investigate. If you live in the city of Atlanta, you are probably lucky to get one officer to respond within 45 minutes of calling 911.
Did Lisa Borders get special treatment in the investigation of her break-in because she is the City Council President and candidate for mayor? That is probably a question every Atlantan should be answering themselves. As citizens you pay taxes, and if Shirley Franklin had her way you'd be paying more than you already do. So you deserve and should insist on getting the same level of service from law enforcement as Lisa Borders is apparently getting.
I've lived in Atlanta for much of my life. When my home was burglarized in 2005 Atlanta police sent one officer out to take a report. I was referred to a detective that I spoke to over the phone. Even though I had serial numbers of the items taken and a pretty good idea of who the culprit was, nothing more was done on my case. I had over $2000 worth of items taken. No fingerprints were collected and I had to write it off ass a loss. The response times for police in the city, in my experience is unacceptable.
When I was present at the robbery of the Subway sandwich shop on Piedmont Rd, it took over 30 minutes for police to arrive. The suspect was long gone. A man robbed the store at gun point. He threatened to shoot the employees and customers if the manager on duty didn't give him all the money from the back office. Subway employees called police three times. The dispatched said they had problems locating the subway. It was really ridiculous. When police finally arrived, two officers showed up and took statements. They didn't send out a finger printer or a detective. They didn't even call me to follow up on my statement.
I've heard of people having their car stolen and having to wait for police to call them back to make a report over the phone. What's wrong with that picture?
You drive around the city any weekday during the lunch hour, you can find officers in groups of 5 or more gathered at eateries across midtown and downtown Atlanta, yet they don't have officers to send to investigate serious non-violent crimes.
Atlanta Police is already under fire about incidents involving officers. I think response times are horrible in some areas, they obviously are having problems with integrity after the Kathryn Johnston shooting and this latest shooting incident. The leadership at the police department and city executive level is is less than impressive.
Atlanta and its citizens deserves more than they are getting from the mayor and Atlanta Police.
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