This program seems pretty much like any community action program. The fact that apartment complexes don't use this as a standard operating procedure is surprising. It is certainly a primary step toward crime prevention.
Ren Monfort says she's a big proponent of Columbia County's Crime-Free Multi-Housing program. She only wishes more area apartments would get involved.
"I think a lot of people don't do it because they think ... what can we do?" said Ms. Monfort, a leasing agent at Ridge Crossing apartments.
In the past month, Ms. Monfort said, disturbances at Ridge Crossing have decreased, and her complex is trying to prevent crime by implementing tenant meetings.
"It's kind of like a gossip group," Ms. Monfort said, adding that about 40 tenants will have the second meeting Dec. 13 to discuss keeping an eye out for suspicious activity.
Ridge Crossing is the only apartment complex in the county involved in the sheriff's office program.
That program aims to reduce crime by having apartment management conduct background checks on potential tenants, add deadbolts, install bright lighting and trim back hedges to reduce hiding places.
Apartment management also must attend training.
Sheriff's Lt. Patricia Champion said she would like to see more apartment complexes in the program, because it connects management with police, who can warn of problem tenants.
Lt. Champion said being in the program also could benefit complexes when wooing new tenants.
"That's what we try to sell to the apartment complexes. You're living in a crime-free multihousing complex," she said.
The program is modeled after one started in Mesa, Ariz., Lt. Champion said. It has spread to nearly 2,000 cities in 44 states, five Canadian provinces and countries including Mexico, England, Finland and Japan.
In Richmond County, sheriff's Maj. Ken Autry said his department doesn't have such a program, "but we do work with the complexes in Augusta. We've gone out and made recommendations as far as lighting and other security measures when asked."
Police say they typically get more calls to apartments than neighborhoods simply because of the number of people living in such proximity, but Maj. Autry said there hasn't been an extreme number in Richmond County.
Aiken County sheriff's Lt. Troy Elwell said his department doesn't have a program like Columbia County's either, but it hasn't had a problem with apartment complexes.
Two years ago, Columbia County sheriff's officials said their resources were being stretched by calls from some apartment complexes, limiting time they could spend policing surrounding neighborhoods.
Although she didn't have statistics, Lt. Champion said she believes the multihousing program is working.
Reach Preston Sparks at (706) 823-3338 or preston.sparks@augustachronicle.com.
CRIME-FREE MULTI-HOUSING PROGRAM
The Columbia County Sheriff's Office runs a program to keep apartments safe. The steps involved:
PHASE ONE: Eight hours of management training by police, including crime prevention theory, the benefits of resident screening, lease agreements and eviction issues.
PHASE TWO: Survey by police, including a compliance inspection of minimum door, window and lock standards, minimum exterior lighting standards, key control procedures and proper landscaping maintenance.
PHASE THREE: Community awareness through an annual crime prevention event taught by management and police.
For more information, call sheriff's Sgt. Eric Snowberger at (706) 541-3905.
Source: Columbia County Sheriff's Office Community Services Division
Comments
This program seems pretty much like any community action program. The fact that apartment complexes don't use this as a standard operating procedure is surprising. It is certainly a primary step toward crime prevention.
You get what you pay for
It seems to be an excellent program. Leave it to Columbia County to lead the way. One point I will make is that for the hundreds of tenants that apartment complexes have, crime is not as bad as it seems. The comment about having more officers to patrol neighborhoods may be missing the point. It takes several neighborhoods to have the same population as one apartment complex on relatively few acres of land. Compare the same number of officers needed to patrol spread out neighborhoods with the same number of residents and the utilization of law enforcement at apartment complexes will not seem so great.
What leasing offices need to do is better screening of their applicants when they fill out the application for renting an apartment.. that certainly helps not such watch groups and all of that other stuff.. I live in an apartment complex that's in a good area of Augusta but they have all these trash moving in.. it's no longer a good place to live.. but I have to agree you get what you pay for.. I guess 600.00 a month isn't enough..
A progressive sheriff's department and community involvement is the key to low crime. A law enforcement agency must stay ahead of the game. Clay Whittle does that. If an agency falls behind it is very difficult to catch back up.
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