City of Chattanooga Police Sgt. Rebecca Shelter, left, and Lt. Kim Noorbergen share the latest police statistics with the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce Hixson Council.
Photo by Katie WardAs students begin to look from spring break to summer, the city of Chattanooga Police Department is preparing for the typical spike in juvenile crime.
Our biggest thing right now is juvenile crime," Lt. Kim Noorbergen told Hixson Council members at their most recent meeting. "Officers arrested two 16-year-olds in Colonial Shores. They had broken into numerous vehicles. They also damaged Colonial Shores signs."
Vehicle thefts and break-ins and robberies are some of Hixson's biggest problems no matter what time of year, she said. Of the 200,000 total calls received by officers in 2010, 22,000 were from the Hixson area.
"Hixson is responsible for 18 percent of the crime in Chattanooga," Noorbergen said. "In March, 40 residential burglaries, three business robberies and 126 thefts from property such as vehicles and garages occurred in Alpha I, II and III in Hixson."
Alpha I is from Northgate Mall to Lake Resort Terrace to Big Ridge and down Hixson Pike to the Hamilton County line, according to Sgt. Rebecca Shelter. She said Alpha II is from Highway 153 to Highway 27 and from Dayton Boulevard to Hixson Pike. She said Alpha III is from Lupton Drive in Red Bank to Mountain Creek Road to Highway 153.
"I've got 15 detectives working 24 hours per day," said Shelter. "We have five districts in Hixson's Alpha Team that's run 24 hours per day, three shifts per day, evening and night. Three officers work Hixson and two work North Chattanooga."
Shelter said people continuously leave their vehicles unlocked and open to robbers. She advises keeping serial numbers found on flat screen TVs and computers, so that if someone steals the items the police can work with pawn shops to find it through the serial number. She and Noorbergen also recommend that neighbors watch out for fellow neighbors and take down car tags of suspicious vehicles in neighborhoods.
"Hopefully, most of you have alarms and cameras in your businesses," said Shelter. "If I owned a business, I would get cameras."