Fall 2020 - 1736 Magazine

down, and I think that is due in large part
to the method in which we police now,”
D’Amico said.
The sheriff's office previously followed
a traditional “beat” structure, in which an
individual deputy was assigned to patrol
rigidly defined geographic areas. In the
zone concept, deputies work in tandem to
patrol much larger geographic areas.
Zone policing not only increases the
deputies’ visibility – as many as eight
officers could be in a single neighborhood
at any given time – it results in quicker
response times.
“It’s kind of an omnipresence, because
when that officer is investigating a car
break-in, there are still three, four or five
officers who might be passing by doing
their patrols in the exact same area,”
D’Amico said. “If one officer is tied up on a
call, it no longer means the place is free for
the taking for the next 20 minutes or so.”
D’Amico also attributes the downtown
area’s falling crime rates to the influx of
millennial professionals and older “empty
nesters” seeking an urban lifestyle and
proximity to the nearby medical district
and other major employment centers.
“If you have someone living downtown
who works at the (Georgia) Cyber Center,
that person isn’t typically going to break
into cars for a living,” he said.
Although the sheriff’s office has an
undisclosed number surveillance cameras
downtown, the bulk of the closed-circuit
cameras positioned at intersections in the
central business district belong to city
traffic engineers. The sheriff’s office is
requesting Augusta commissioners include
its $1.6 million proposal for 63 downtown
security cameras on the list of projects in
the special purpose local option sales tax
referendum in March.
Violent crime in the downtown area,
though relatively uncommon, tends to
have a greater psychological impact on area
residents who consider it to be the community’s
cultural epicenter, D’Amico said.
High-profile incidents, such as the
2016 gunfight that occurred during the
city's Independence Day fireworks show
and the 2013 beating of a young couple
along Riverwalk Augusta, tend to receive
more media attention when they occur
downtown.
Like most high-density urban cores,
downtown Augusta attracts criminals
seeking to commit “crimes of opportunity,”
such as burglaries and thefts. In the
case of auto burglaries, one of the most
common offenses in downtown Augusta,
many victims left their doors unlocked or
had valuables visible through their windows.
Similarly, a significant number of
bicycle thefts result from owners leaving
them unlocked and unattended.
D’Amico said a criminal can simply walk
block-to-block tugging at car door handles
until he or she gets lucky.
“If my intention is to break into cars, I'm
going where the cars are,” D’Amico said.
“I could hit 100 cars a night in downtown,
whereas that would take me days out in the
country.”
AND CONTRAST...
Building: Loop Recruiting
Address: 972 Broad St.
Owner: Loop Recruiting/Milestone Construction, Augusta
Size: 8,284 square feet
Year built: 1916
Tax-assessed value: $52,505
Condition: Occupied, fully renovated
History: The three-story building, once Broad Street's tallest
storefront, was developed in the early 20th century by the E.M.
Andrews Furniture Co. The property was later acquired by the
Cohen family, which operated the popular Bee Hive children’s
clothing store in the building until 1979.
The vacant property was in decay until an investment group consisting
of personnel firm Loop Recruiting and general contractor Milestone
Construction bought the building in 2017 to house its offices.
The staff of Loop Recruiting stand outside the company office at
972 Broad St., a building that sat vacant for nearly four decades.
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