Highlights From 3^rd Quarter WGNA Presentations 7/27/13 K.Agee

Our 3^rd quarter WGNA meeting (7 p.m. 7/25/13 at the Christian Church, Lawler @ Jupiter) featured three of GPD’s Neighborhood Patrol Officers for our area.  Councilwoman Lori Dodson introduced Officers Mallison, Garcia, and Docktor.  She mentioned that Officer Mallison is Garland’s current Officer of the Year, and Officer Docktor held that title last year. 

The Garland Police Dept has expanded the role of the Neighborhood Patrol Officer (NPO) program into street-level drug and gang activity, and as we listened to their updates it became clear that they had detailed knowledge of the neighborhood. For example, they named an apartment complex that was going thru a management change that had an effect on crime in that specific area.  Also they mentioned that there’s been a recent increase in the number of “smash and grab” crimes against local businesses, and situations where criminals targeted Spanish-speaking immigrants on nights when they thought their victims might be carrying wads of cash. 

Following is a map showing the various police precincts and the main NPO Officer for each precinct:

Precinct	Officer
21	Franey
22	Clark
23	Garcia
25	Mallison

(Lt. Ben St. Clair oversees

this entire operation)

The preferred way to report crimes or otherwise get help from the Police is by either calling 911 for emergencies, or 972-485-4840 for non-emergencies.  If circumstances are warranted, the NPO’s do publish their contact information at this website:

http://www.ci.garland.tx.us/gov/lq/safety/police/unit/npo.asp

Fran Brown explained that GPD sponsors a program called Garland Citizen’s Police Academy which does things like report handicapped parking violations, etc.  The GPD selects up to 30 applicants (volunteers) for each of their two classes per year (spring and fall).  More information can be found at:  http://www.ci.garland.tx.us/gov/lq/safety/police/cpa.asp

We decided that our WGNA association would again participate with the October 1^st (the date chosen by the Texas chapter) National Night Out event, and announced that we are looking for volunteers to help serve and entertain that evening from a little before that 7pm start time until we clean up after the event ends at about sunset.  We will try to team with one of the local Churches, and/or the Boy Scouts.  Stay turned to www.wgna.info for more information as things develop further.

We also bid farewell to Dianna Diaz who had been our Treasurer for quite a while now, as she will be moving out of the area and going back to College.  Robert Vera will assume the office.  Fyi, Robert is also our Council District 6 representative on the Planning and Zoning Commission.