Memorial Drive Merchants Association, Neighborhood Watch Efforts Underway

Neighborhood watches and an effort to get a business association going on Memorial Drive were the focus of a packed PRISM meeting on safety in the corridor Thursday, along with possible changes coming to the code compliance ordinance.

A first meeting of merchants is planned for April 26 at 8 a.m. at the Chick-Fil-A on Memorial Drive. DeKalb CEO Burrell Ellis and Rep. Michele Henson are co-hosting the event, ONE DeKalb's Bettye Davis said. 

Police and code compliance officials at the meeting stressed community efforts in making the community safer. Tonaya Moss, public education specialist at the DeKalb police department will be holding a meeting about neighborhood watches soon.

"It's got to come up through the community," ONE DeKalb's Bettye Davis said.

Chick-Fil-A on Memorial Drive is offering to sponsor the first meeting of a community that is organizing a neighborhood watch. The restaurant is also organizing a walk on April 28 on Memorial Drive to raise awareness about safety in the corridor. (Click on the link for more information).

Thursday's meeting was the second PRISM (Pride Rings in Stone Mountain) meeting focusing on safety in the area after the rape, robbery and beating of a woman at St. Timothy United Methodist Church on Memorial Drive, where the civic organization meets monthly. 

DeKalb police officials, including Chief William O'Brien, attended both meetings. The department has upped patrols in the area since the crime occurred at the church. Residential burglaries have decreased 66 percent and pedestrian robberies by 50 percent, Major Brian Harris said.

"We hammered this area pretty hard," Maj. Harris said after the meeting. "It just makes me sick," he said of the crime. Harris was recently promoted to major and is commander of the Tucker precinct.

Changes to the code ordinance may be coming, Jude Nelly Withers said, to make enforcement an administrative process instead of a criminal one. The problem with the present system is that judges often have no choice but to dismiss cases brought before them. The changes would "clarify the way it's written so that we can enforce it."