LH Press Library
Private Patrols Cruising into the Mainstream
Richardson Morning News, by Wendy Hundley
June 15,
2003
It's a muggy afternoon, and Art Chavez is driving slowly down a residential street in northeast Dallas, looking for easy targets. Armed with a .45-caliber handgun, he's trying to spot an open window, a garage door that someone forgot to close, papers stacked on a doorstep – any oversight that rolls out the welcome mat for criminals.
But, don't fear. Mr. Chavez is one of the good guys. He works for Crime Strike Inc., one of the private security firms that a growing number of Dallas homeowners are hiring to keep crime at bay.
"People realize times have changed," said Greg Sampley, a member of the Woodbridge Homeowners Association that hired Crime Strike to patrol the well-manicured neighborhood of $250,000 to $300,000 homes.
"There are not enough police officers out there to do this," Mr. Sampley said of the daily patrols. "Residents think they have to step up and do something to keep their neighborhoods safe and keep the home values up."
Although private armed guards have been patrolling posh neighborhoods with $1 million homes for years, middle-class homeowners are now seeking the same service, said Danielle Bundy, marketing director for Firstwatch Corp., another Dallas security firm that provides neighborhood patrols.
She said small groups of homeowners in Plano, Carrollton, Richardson and Lewisville have banded together to hire Firstwatch to conduct random patrols between 5 p.m. and 5 a.m.
"It's growing in middle-class areas," said Ms. Bundy, who has seen the trend developing during the last three years. "A group of neighbors or a whole street contracts for night patrols."
Cost is a big factor for many homeowner groups.
Saving money
The Country Forest/Jackson Meadows Homeowners Association hired off-duty Dallas police officers for several years to patrol the neighborhood of 490 homes southeast of Richland College. The association was paying about $200 for an officer to patrol in a marked squad car for four to five hours, said Don Bratton, former president of the homeowners association. Officers patrolled 100 to 120 days a year.
"By hiring Crime Strike, they'd drive through the neighborhood two or three times every 24 hours," Mr. Bratton said. "We were getting better exposure and paying Crime Strike $1,200 a month."
Although only about half of the residents participate in the voluntary association, each homeowner is asked to pay $75 dues and $50 for the Crime Strike patrols annually.
Charlene Pearlman thinks it's money well spent. When her house was pelted with foul-smelling garbage late Thursday night, she first called 911, then Crime Strike. "The Crime Strike guy got here right away, less than five minutes. It probably took the police 20 minutes," she said. "The Crime Strike guy said he'd stay in the neighborhood until he got off duty at 2 a.m. Then he gave me his cell phone number."
Criminal activity
So far this year, the area where the neighborhood is located has had more than 250 reported crimes, including 12 aggravated assaults, 38 residential burglaries, 37 thefts, 34 individual robberies and 55 auto thefts, according to Dallas police statistics.
Last year, the area had 650 reported crimes, including two murders and five rapes, down from 763 reported crimes in 2001, police records show.
Mrs. Pearlman, who has lived in the neighborhood for 24 years, said she thinks crime has increased as the area has grown. She said she hopes that vandals will be discouraged by signs along Audelia Road announcing that armed guards are on patrol, and by Crime Strike guards who could easily be mistaken for police officers.
Crime Strike guards wear dark-blue uniforms and carry handcuffs, billy clubs, pepper spray and handguns. Their vehicles - they call them squad cars - are white with blue striping and equipped with flashing lights and police scanners.
"I think it helps because their patrol cars look like police cars, and they wear uniforms," Mrs. Pearlman said. "That's a big deterrent."
Crime Strike owner T.J. D'Aquino agrees. He said his 30-member security force patrols a 10-square-mile area in northeast Dallas, and most of his clients are apartment complexes. He's added the residential neighborhoods in the last 18 months and expects that part of his business to grow.
"Residents are looking for an alternative," he said. "Police do what they can. We supplement the police."
Dallas police Officer David Sullivan, who works out of the northeast substation, wasn't aware of homeowner groups using private patrols. "We can use all the help we can get," he said.
However, he said homeowners should know that private security guards have no authority to make arrests and can only detain suspects if they witness a felony or breach of the peace.
Potential problems
"Criminal trespass is not a breach of the peace, and that's where they can run into problems," he said. "If they do stop suspects and detain them illegally, security guards can be arrested for unlawful detention."
His main concern, however, focused on security guards patrolling public streets while armed. "It's a public street, and anyone can drive on a public street, but they can't carry a weapon," Officer Sullivan said.
He said he and two higher-ranking officers have requested a legal opinion on the issue. "I'm not concerned about it. We're not patrolling the public streets, we're patrolling the neighborhood that the houses are in," Mr. D'Aquino said. "Police are understaffed, and people are looking for other sources to patrol their communities. This is the trend. People are sick and tired of crime and will do whatever it takes."
The trend may be growing.
Possible expansion
This week, the newly formed District 10 North Coalition, representing six homeowner groups in northeast Dallas, met to discuss expanding the Crime Strike patrols to cover more than 2,000 homes in the area.
If approved, the private security force would be patrolling the single-family residential neighborhoods between Abrams Road, Forest Lane, Buckingham Road and the Garland city limits.
"It's sad we have to do this," Mr. Sampley said after the meeting. "But we're not going to let the bad guys win."
Reprinted with permission of The Dallas Morning News.
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