Signs at entrance ways and on street corners throughout southside Savannah’s Kensington Park and Groveland neighborhoods remind motorists to lock their vehicles when they leave them.
In an area plagued early this year by constantly increasing numbers of vehicle break-ins and auto thefts, the simple white signs and a community-wide campaign to thwart the crimes has worked beyond anyone’s expectations.
The initiative, dubbed Lock it or Lose It by Kensington Park Community Association President Pam Miller, began June 28 when the signs were placed and volunteers walked throughout the neighborhoods and to surrounding residences distributing flyers to more than 1,000 households.
Since that day, said Savannah-Chatham police Cpl. John Simmons, the Southside Precinct’s crime prevention officer, not a single entering auto or stolen vehicle in those neighborhoods has been reported to police.
“The first of July we already had one (suspect) caught because of people paying attention, and it’s just been a downhill battle — it’s been getting better and better and better,” Simmons said. “So far, it’s just beginning to take off and other neighborhoods now want to get involved as well.”
Based on the successes in Kensington Park and Groveland, the city of Savannah along with the Savannah-Chatham police are working to spread Lock It or Lose It across other areas of the city and unincorporated Chatham County, where more than 1,150 auto break-ins have been reported this year, a 23 percent increase over the same time period last, according to police statistics.
The biggest issues, police said, are easy access for criminals and incentive. In more than 50 percent of reported entering autos this year cars were left unlocked; about 40 percent of the items stolen out of vehicles in 2013 were left in plain sight.
The solution to those problems, said police Maj. Richard Zapal, the department’s Patrol South commander is fairly simple: Lock car doors and move valuables out of eyesight.
“It’s a chronic problem all over this city and county,” Zapal said. “What the criminals are doing is walking by cars and jiggling the handles, and if it opens they get inside and look for items.”
Miller was a victim herself earlier this year when she forgot to lock her car’s doors.
“I had been sick; I got out of my car and failed to lock it and that one night, what do you know, somebody came through and got the change out of my car,” Miller said. “So I came up with the idea of Lock It or Lose It, just to remind people to stay in the habit of locking their car, taking their valuables out of the car. We talk a lot about that at the holiday times, but we don’t necessarily talk about it just during the other parts of the year.”
Now, she said, her neighbors want to “pay it forward” to other Savannah-area communities facing similar difficulties.
“All it took here was a reminder,” Miller said. “It’s worked. It’s just about reminding people that they have to lock up their valuables.
“A lot of the neighborhoods may not be as fortunate as we are to have plentiful membership and the funds necessary to make these signs, so we left Kensington Park off of them because we wanted to be able to take these signs to neighborhoods who can’t afford it.”
There’s no reason, Simmons said, similar approaches in other parts of Savannah wouldn’t pay off.
“It was really refreshing to see a community come together and say, ‘Hey, we want to do a project and we want your help.’ And they’re taking it and running with it, it’s working really well,” he said.
“These other areas (of Savannah) can tailor (a program) for their needs in their areas and see very similar successes. Just talk to your (crime prevention officer) or your precinct captain and we’ll find a program that will work, and we’ll drive down these kinds of crimes like they’ve done here in Kensington.”
SAVANNAH-CHATHAM POLICE PRECINCT PHONE NUMBERS:
West Chatham Precinct: 912-652-6560
Downtown Precinct: 912-651-6990
Central Precinct: 912-651-6931
Southside Precinct: 912-351-3400
Islands Precinct: 912-898-3252