Local

New hotline helps people in metro cities report burglaries in progress

NORTH FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — Home and property owners in four Metro Atlanta cities will now have an easier time reporting burglaries in progress, especially if they are out of town.

ChatComm, which serves Sandy Springs, Johns Creek, Dunwoody and Brookhaven, has launched a hotline people can call to report crimes.

The number is 404-843-6680.

“Whether it be camera footage that someone sees from out of state or out of the city or away from their home, as well as alarms that are possibly not monitored,” Sgt. Tyler Seymour of the Johns Creek Police Department told Channel 2’s Mike Petchenik. “This is a single stop, 24/7 monitored, so that the citizen can contact the dispatch center directly.”

Seymour said the idea was hatched after discussions with dispatchers about ways to speed up response times, especially on burglary calls when a person was out of the city or the state.

In those cases, Seymour said when a victim called 911, they were routed to the dispatch center wherever they were first, and then eventually patched through to ChatComm. Seymour said that drastically slowed down response times.

“Let’s create a number that the citizens can contact, that way our response time is quickened,” he said.

Johns Creek business owner Sherry Xia said she already sees officers patrolling the strip mall where she operates a flower shop.

“They always have the police here, every day. They come here every day, two or three times, for me I know that.”

She said she welcomes the new layer of security.

“Safer for the business owner,” she said.