Do San Angelo neighborhoods feel safe?

SAN ANGELO — Imagine waking up to your house alarm blaring, getting out of bed and heading out of the bedroom to investigate.

Imagine creeping through the dark, trying to be quiet, trying to be calm.

Imagine turning the corner and coming face to face with an intruder.

It happened to San Angeloan R. Truelove at 5 a.m., about two months ago. The incident is fresh in her mind, like it happened yesterday.

"I didn't know what to do," she recalled her panic. "I just started screaming — Get out! Get out! Get out!"

The man turned and bolted out her front door and she called 9-1-1. Later she discovered that 22 seconds had elapsed between the alarm being triggered and her 9-1-1 call. "To me it seemed like a long, drawn-out time," she said, her voice shaky from the memory.

Since last fall, several San Angelo neighborhoods have experienced a rash of property crimes.

Concerns about car burglaries and home invasion incidents prompted City Councilman Lane Carter, SMD 5, to schedule a town hall meeting focused on neighborhood security and crime watch programs in the Santa Rita neighborhood last November. He will be hosting a second meeting, this time open to residents of any area since he considers these to be citywide issues, on Tuesday, Jan. 31.

A string of vehicle burglaries — seven in one night, according to the San Angelo Police Department — took place in the PaulAnn neighborhood earlier this month.

Readers from North San Angelo have reported alarming observations that included a fugitive jumping their fence, vehicle burglaries, stolen items and illegal drug activity.

""It's a little ridiculous but I'm starting to think it's everywhere in San Angelo at this point," said Aubrey Tucker, a reader who lives in the Santa Rita area, on the Standard-Times Facebook page.

Tucker's impression is not wrong.

"Basically it’s happening all over town. It just kind of moves around, from neighborhood to neighborhood," said Lieutenant Les Bird, who is in charge of the SAPD's Criminal Investigations Division, also known as the detectives division.

"It’s kind of like when you go shopping ... If you go to a mall, you’ve got all your shops in one place. Otherwise, you’re driving all over town," he said. "The most convenient is shopping at one spot, so when you (burglars) go and hit a neighborhood, you work as much as you can and then you move on."

However, he added there is generally an uptick in crimes around the holidays.

"It's a serious problem," Bird added. "Unfortunately, it's not going to go away."

Has there been an increase in neighborhood crimes?

The answer to that question is "No," said Police Chief Frank Carter during an interview. Then he added, "Having said that, we went to a new computer system right when we took over. We’re working through it the best we can, but we’re having a very difficult time pulling data and crime statistics at this time."

The new system is also the reason why the department is no longer putting out Neighborhood Crime Reports.

"It was a good tool for the public," Carter said, adding that it was educational and helped with awareness. "But again, we’re having some difficult time as we transition from one software system to another one ... it’s not capable of pulling that data."

When asked if the department went from a good system to a worse one, Assistant Chief Tracy Fincher, responsible for field operations, responded: "Pretty much."

"It put us about 10 to 15 years behind," Carter added. "That's why we are struggling."

Not only is the SAPD having difficulty pulling the data — the data it gets is of questionable accuracy. And the software problems impact other aspects of the department as well, whether it be in dispatch, assigning criminal cases, crime analysis, patrol, or whether the way they have to do reports. "It's affected us in many different ways," Carter said.

The city issued debt in the amount of $1.5 million in 2016 to pay for upgrades to the Public Safety Communication division's Computer-Assisted Dispatch systems, record management system and mobile computing software, related hardware and interfaces. The city also budgeted a further $200,000 in the general fund to update the Fire Department's Zetron hardware — to alert the appropriate fire station when a dispatch call is coming in — so that it is compatible with the PSC's system. All together, the upgrades cost $1.7 million.

The PSC upgrades were coordinated by Assistant Chief Jeff Fant before he left the department after the 2016 election. Fant was considered a computer expert in the department.

However, Chief Carter said crime has been on an increase for the last three years.

"The FBI released their 2015 report a few months ago, and it clearly shows San Angelo had an increase in crime," he said.

According to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting statistics, property crime in the City of San Angelo by the numbers:

• In 2013, the number reported was 3,592
• In 2014, the number was 3,786
• In 2015, the number was 4,089

"In the last 3 years, we’ve probably had a 16 percent increase in criminal activity, and the majority of that has been in theft or vehicle burglaries — I can say that in the majority of those vehicle burglaries, the vehicles are unlocked," Carter said. "It’s a crime of opportunity, and that is where we’re trying to get our media, our (Public Information Officer), to put the message out there as simple as it sounds: Lock your car up. Remove your valuables. If citizens would do that, we would see a pretty good reduction."

Other Issues

SAPD regularly gets calls about people walking down the street, checking door handles and looking for easy targets. The police can do very little under those circumstances.

"For me to go up and stare at your windows from the outside if I’m on public property, there’s no violation there," Carter said. Moreover, he explained, years ago vehicle burglary was considered a felony, but due to legislative changes — which he attributes to jail overcrowding —it's now considered a misdemeanor. It becomes a felony under the Texas Penal Code only if it can be shown that:

(A)  the defendant has been previously convicted two or more times of an offense under this section; or

(B) the vehicle or part of the vehicle broken into or entered is a rail car.

"We have vehicle burglaries once every week or two," said Lindsey Elliot, a reader from the PaulAnn area, on a Standard-Times Facebook post about the subject. "It doesn't matter if you lock your car or not, they will bust out the window."

Carter said the criminals are generally looking for electronics, weapons, quick cash, wallets, purses. They’re looking for anything that are easy to take.

"What’s scary about that is, that a number of people leave weapons in their vehicles, and leave their vehicles unlocked. We have criminals that are just targeting vehicles looking for guns," the chief said. "Just a small number of those end up in pawn shops, that we may recover. The large majority ends up in the hands of criminals and gang members, and are used in other crimes. It’s a very serious situation."

Another issue is limited manpower. According Assistant Chief Fincher, the CID currently has 13 detectives available to handle the caseload. He added major crimes — such as an officer-involved shooting or murder — consume a great deal of time and manpower.

"There’s only so many detectives that we have, and there’s thousands —or hundreds and hundreds— of cases that come through on a monthly basis that are felonies, with suspects," Carter said. "I mean, it’s impossible to work every misdemeanor and felony that comes through."

There is also concern about the revolving door of our justice system; crime happens, the police investigate, arrests are made and the offender is sent to jail— after a while, some of them are released and take to crime again.

"I asked myself is it really SAPD's fault or the DA's? I think burglars continue to do this because there is no real punishment involved," said reader Crystal Talamantes in our Facebook conversation. "My mom had her car stolen by a repeat offender who was on parole at the time for car theft, and he only got 500 days in state jail. I'm also in PaulAnn district and we have an officer living on almost every street and that doesn't even help. I honestly feel the person who breaks the law has more protection then us."

Carter said residents at times might feel that way, but that's not necessarily true in San Angelo. "We have laws we have to work with, and we deal with them every day," he said. "We’re doing our part. We go out there, we investigate, we put people in jail. From that point on, it’s no longer our responsibility."

Despite all the issues, the San Angeloans who contributed to this article unanimously appreciated the SAPD's responsiveness and concern. "I will say I absolutely appreciate the police here, they always come fast and are so kind and care a lot," said Daniella Falcon, a reader who lives in North San Angelo.

Is there a solution?

Sherrie Scott, who has lived near downtown between the fort and the river for almost 30 years, thinks so.

"Several years ago we had punks across the street and some gang activity. We experienced theft of some tools and bicycles, and a neighbor had her lawn mower stolen. Someone stole the light bulbs out of my front porch fixture," she said. However, Scott has seen things improve and a reduction in crimes and traffic. "I would like to note that we know all of our neighbors, and they know us. We watch out for each other."

That is the key.

Sheryl Briels, who lives in the Angelo Heights area, shared her suggestion on Facebook with the Standard-Times. "My suggestion is for a community, citizen-based, patrol or security groups to be initiated in in neighborhoods that are willing to be a part of the solution," she wrote. "The SAPD could provide training."

Neighbors in the Santa Rita area have already started organizing since the incidents and first meeting on the issue in November. They have also started using Nextdoor, a private social network for neighborhoods, to stay in contact with each other about issues, concerns and other happenings.

"Our next step is separating our neighborhood into blocks," said Truelove, who has jumped into working on the solution after her experience with the intruder. She and others working on figuring out how to break the large neighborhood at the center of the city into blocks and finding volunteers to take charge of being a contact person for each block. "We do what we can to keep our families safe," she said.

Chief Carter supports and encourages neighborhood involvement. He and his staff attended Councilman Carter's first meeting and plan to attend the one coming up on Tuesday. "I think its great they’re all coming together and trying to protect each other," the chief said. "That’s something we’re trying to bring back also through our Crime Prevention side —neighborhood watches. I applaud them for taking it upon themselves to have that meeting, form a committee and get the neighborhood actively working."

Crime can happen anywhere and he wants to see other neighborhoods in the city also getting active and involved. Some areas, he said, have crimes happen but don't report it as much.

"I don’t know if it’s fear of the police, or they feel the police won’t do anything, or they’ve become accustomed to it," Carter said, but he hopes his efforts to put patrol officers back into the neighborhoods will help. "It’s a continuing effort, it’s not a one-time deal. The big thing is, they see these officers in the neighborhood and the officers have the opportunity to speak to these folks when not necessarily on a call or when they’re handling business. Hopefully, that will strengthen those relationships."

However, the police chief cautions that it's important for people not to take unnecessary risks.

One of our Facebook respondents asked "When we catch them, by law what can we do to them until an officer arrives? Beat them up, tie them to a light pole out front, shoot them with a paint gun? (Don't own one but if it's legal I will purchase one)."

Chief Carter doesn't advise any of it. "These people out there breaking the law, many of them are not good people," he said. "They could be armed with weapons."

Also, the chief saw a post on an online neighborhood watch group that a woman was planning to drive around at night, patrolling, with her lights on bright and a flashlight. There are several unsettling issues with this scenario, he pointed out.

One of them is that it's illegal to drive in the city limits with brights on. Another issue is unnecessary risk.

"If it's your property, and you're protecting your property, that's a different issue," he said, adding that he didn't want people to be confused. "I’m saying that for people going out on night patrols – not on their property – and expect to apprehend somebody, I’m totally against all that."

Neighborhood watches are based on neighbors watching out for neighbors and calling the police if there's something suspicious, he said.

"Overall, you know the police don’t solve crimes, it’s the citizens. They’re the eyes and ears out there, " Carter said. "We just work the case after we’re given the suspect, basically, and that’s usually through leads of a citizen or the victim."

Assistant Chief David Howard agreed. "We have made some of our best cases by people just being good witnesses and getting good information and relating that to officers," he said.

Info Box

IF YOU GO

What: A town hall meeting on the security and safety in San Angelo neighborhoods hosted by City Councilman Lane Carter.

When: 6 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 31

Where: at MHMR Services for the Concho Valley, 1501 W. Beauregard Ave. 

More Information: Call Councilman Carter at 325-213-1987 or email Lane.Carter@cosatx.us.

Editor's Note: A follow up story on Neighborhood Safety will be published after this meeting.

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