Angle Lake Crime Survey

There are so many things to be thankful for living in this neighborhood: neighbors who care about the area, the camaraderie that is experienced through the various Shore Club events, the Friday Night social hours on the ‘El” (which last Friday looked like a small floating city of folks out enjoying the company of their other neighbors), opportunities in boating, sailing, fishing and swimming that living on the lake affords, and of course the simple beauty of our natural surroundings and the view it provides.

However, the neighborhood does have a problem and it appears to be increasing… what I am referring to is the rise in the frequency that criminal activity is occurring in our neighborhood. We’ve heard the news reports of breaking and entering which resulted in the assailant being shot by the homeowner; we learned of instances where home and car windows as well as overhead lights have been shot out, we’re aware of the recent property thefts occurring along the lakeshore, we’ve witnessed the results of mail theft seeing postal materials strewn about the culverts and walkways along our streets.  And now it appears that even our City Government is not immune to the problem of property crime in our area either. I just learned on Saturday that sometime during the morning hours the Angle Lake Park restrooms were broken into and all the copper piping was removed… rendering the restroom inoperable, requiring portable restrooms to be deployed until the plumbing can be replaced.

Crime can have negative effects on community morale as well as business growth and development.  Fear of being victimized by crime affects purchasing habits, community involvement and tourism. Preventing crime is the responsibility of those who seek a safe, peaceful environment.  Learning effective ways to deter crime is the first step to securing and maintaining low crime rates.

I, like many of you, am frustrated at hearing the increasing number of reported crimes occurring within our area, of experiencing crime as a victim of it and not hearing of any viable solutions, sorry but I don’t think an armed posse of vigilante residents is necessarily the right way of going about it! (…hello? …Zimmerman???)

While the police services are doing what they can, let’s face it – their services are mostly reactive at best, after the crime has been committed and I’ve seen little done toward preventing it from occurring.  Therefore, I’d like to call upon the stakeholders of our neighborhood, the property owners who care most about this community and ask that we begin brainstorming possible solutions; I’d also like to ask that you respond by taking the following online survey to get a baseline understanding of where the majority are at when it comes to preventing crime. 

Click here to take survey

The survey consists of 10 questions to respond to with opportunity to provide additional detail if you prefer.  Thank you in advance for taking the time to respond to this survey.