Fulton DA Hears Crime Problems in Alpharetta, Milton

Local residents told Fulton District Attorney Paul Howard that burglary and teen drug use were problems that needed to be addressed.

The residents of Alpharetta, Milton and other North Fulton cities met with Howard, police chiefs and officers from Alpharetta, Milton, Johns Creek, Roswell and Sandy Springs in an advisory board meeting held by North Fulton Assistant District Attorney Todd Ashley in Alpharetta Tuesday night. City council members from each city, plus Roswell's mayor, also participated in the meeting.

One resident told a story of his teen daughter's drug use, and how it took committing her to a juvenile facility to get her clean.

"I think everybody would be amazed at how available they are for teenagers. Meth, coke, PCP, you name it, it's out there in the neighborhood," he said.

Drugs are fueling gangs and burglaries in the neighborhoods. The lack of consequences for juveniles makes it tougher.

Howard said that's a story his office hears often.

"We are in a really, really tough spot here in Fulton County," he said.

It used to be people would talk about going down to Florida to buy drugs. Now people in Florida come to Georgia to buy drugs, specifically the Atlanta area. Some cartels point out metro Atlanta as their distribution headquarters. The numbers bear this out.

"Forty percent of the cases that we indict are drug related. It is still a huge problem," Howard said.

Seventy percent of the homicides are either directly or indirectly linked to drugs, mainly cocaine, he said.

"We see now not just use of cocaine and meth, but we see cocaine and meth cultures in the communities," Howard said.

He said a big problem these days is the theft of copper. Even small churches are having their air conditioning units stolen, or at least the cores. A method his office will soon be pushing is for every homeowner and business to spray paint their AC unit's core. A metal recycling firm won't buy anything that's marked like that.

Alpharetta Police Captain Sandy West asked Howard to continue the program into precious metals. He wants every part of metro Atlanta involved in tracking the sale of gold and other precious metals. But West said that is difficult with so many offers to mail gold and other metals off for a payout that's also made by mail. That makes it tough to track the sale of stolen goods.

Howard said Craigslist has been another problem with stolen goods. His office estimates a third of all stolen property is sold through Craigslist.

Craigslist allows people to just put up a telephone number with no name or address. It allows for easy sales of stolen goods.

"We are having gigantic problems. The burglary task force believes about a third of property stolen is sold through the Internet," Howard said.

Sandy Springs recently caught some people doing this. But in DeKalb County, selling stolen property wasn't enough. Some suspects listed a telephone number to sell goods, but things went differently when people called to arrange a meeting to buy the items.

"When folks showed up to buy it, they robbed them," Howard said.

"It has become really dangerous to go out and meet those people."

West said every officer in the department­–including Public Safety Director Gary George–is assigned a neighborhood.

"We are liaisons for those neighborhoods," West said.

The residents can call the officer and get immediate attention. The calls aren't just about police work. They might be about signs, road or anything else they can help expedite.

Howard, said the court system's "rocket docket" contributes to the problems in his opinion, as non-elected judges are putting repeat offenders back on the streets on probation despite his office's requests for prison time.

Fulton County Commissioner Liz Hausmann asked Howard if he had sat down with the chief judge in Fulton County.

Howard said yes, and that he had sent three letters on the topic as well. But judges continue to give probation to defendants who already are serving probation for previous crimes.

Fulton Sheriff Ted Jackson said the problem goes beyond just the judiciary, but is a problem with the system. Only 14 of the 20 superior court judges try criminal cases.

"That's not enough judges. We have to look at the whole infrastructure," Jackson said.

He said it will take time for the 757 defendants his department is holding in the Fulton Detention Center to be tried in the system.

"Fulton County Jail is not a prison. It is a pretrial detention center. It's not built to hold people five and six years. That's what the state prison is for," Howard said.

Sandy Springs Police Chief Terry Sult said it's going to take money to fix the problem, something that's difficult in these economic times.

He acknowledged repeat offenders are overwhelming the courts and jail.

"If you fix one part of it and don't fix the other part of it, you are wasting our time. It's got to be a complete system overhaul to fix the problem," Sult said.