A shopping center in Atlanta, GA, has been the target of numerous violent crimes, brutal carjackings and robberies. There have been a total of 6 carjackings and 1 mugging since 2013, and the community has finally had enough.
The worst of the attacks occurred in June/July 2014.
On the evening of June 26, 2014, a bicyclist in the parking lot of the shopping center was violently attacked, beaten and mugged. The event was caught on a parking lot surveillance camera, however, the footage could only help determine that four men were involved in the attack.
The most brutal attack occurred only nine days later, on July 5th. In broad daylight a woman was brutally attacked by three men in the center’s parking garage. She had been punched in the head, robbed, almost run over with her own car and left for dead. She had told reporters that she was worried for her safety due to the prior mugging, but thought since it was in the early afternoon she would be okay. She purposefully parked near an elevator where she could see a parking lot surveillance camera. The attackers were caught on camera, not well enough to be identified. All other parking lot surveillance cameras were disabled at the time.
Because of these violent crimes, the community vowed to boycott the shopping center if security was not improved. The security patrol urged everyone to send letters to the property management company, urging them to implement better crime prevention measures and install brighter lights throughout the parking decks, panic buttons on all parking surfaces, a minimum of two armed guards, and an improved camera system.
The management company responded that they will assign one security guard to each major parking lot. They will also implement an “unauthorized persons law”, meaning that if the guard determines someone looks suspicious, they are authorized to have them leave. These measures were insufficient. Three additional carjackings occurred in January 2015.
The shopping center is not a client of Stealth Monitoring. With Stealth proactive live surveillance an operator could have seen unusual activity such as violent crime in progress, activated an audible warning to deter the thieves, and called the local police. According to the community, the management company is just trying to save money by not improving their security. The community also believes that no amount of money is worth someone’s life and if they have to boycott the shopping center to prove that, they will.
Stealth Monitoring live video monitoring can significantly improve protection and reduce costs, including security guards, to detect and deter violent crime. Please contact us for more information on Stealth’s security surveillance.
