Photo by Sarah Finnegan.
Stewart Welch
Stewart Welch
We don’t live in Mayberry anymore. Mountain Brook continues to have one of the lowest crime rates in our state and one of the lowest of any city its size in the country.
A lot of the credit goes to Police Chief Jaye Loggins and his hand-picked team of highly qualified, highly trained officers. Chief Loggins began his career with our city in 1996, so he has had the opportunity to see us grow from a police force of just a handful of officers to the more than 60 officers we have today.
But low crime doesn’t mean no crime. The proliferation of drugs across America has been nothing short of astonishing, and it has increased exponentially over the past decade as fentanyl, a lab-manufactured drug, has poured into our country and around the world.
With the internet came the good and the bad. Cybercriminals use the internet to steal people’s identities, and residents of Mountain Brook are especially favored targets. Identity theft of our
residents has become one of our most frequently reported crimes.
These are particularly difficult crimes to investigate, prosecute and resolve. Your best protection is to be extremely vigilant in protecting your personal data. Never give out personal information unless you are certain of the recipient. With advancements in AI (artificial intelligence), we have seen cases of voice replication of a parent or child requesting immediate funds for a so-called emergency.
Place alerts on your credit cards so that you are notified of all charges above a nominal amount. Do the same with checking and savings accounts. Consider placing a ‘credit freeze’ with the credit bureaus, Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax. It is easy to do and easy to temporarily remove when you need to add credit or allow a credit check.
One mostly preventable crime within our city is car break-ins. In most cases, cars are left unlocked or items of value are left in full view. It only takes a few seconds to break a window and steal an item in plain sight.
One of our most treasured assets and our most visited park is Jemison Park. While we have had very few problems at this park, the city council recently voted to install a multi-camera system that can be monitored by our police department.
Finally, if you would like to “keep your finger on the pulse” of criminal activity in our city, download our police app. It can be found in the app stores by searching “Mountain Brook PD.” They provide a weekly update of crimes occurring in Mountain Brook.
You can view the update on the app or you can sign up through the city’s website to receive the update at mtnbrook.org/police/page/mbpd-community-update.
By working together, we can all help reduce crime in one of the safest communities in America.
