The Rockdale County Sheriff's Office has charged three teens believed to be involved in a recent rash of car break-ins in south Rockdale County.
More deputies had been deployed to the area of Stanton Road in the early morning hours due to several recent car break-ins and burglaries in the area.
On Wednesday, June 26, around 4 a.m., deputies saw three teenage males riding bicycles in the area of Stanton Road. After stopping the teenagers, the deputies questioned them about why they were out in the area at such a late hour. During the encounter, deputies discovered the teenagers had several GPS units and other miscellaneous items, and one was in possession of a bag of marijuana.
One of the teenagers was arrested at that time of the stop. He was charged with possession of marijuana and for being in possession of a GPS unit that had just been reported stolen from a subdivision off Highway 20. The other two teenagers were released while all of the property was taken into custody so that investigators could determine if any of the property was stolen.
Once deputies and investigators began looking into the recovered items, new reports of car break-ins were made just hours later. The original teenagers that had been released on the scene have since been charged in relation to the thefts.
Additional charges and arrests are expected, and the arrests are expected to clear a number of entered auto cases, as well as burglary cases in the general area.
Trevious Troutman, 17, of Conyers was arrested for Misdemeanor Possession of Marijuana, Theft by Receiving Stolen Property, and two counts of Entering an Automobile.
Reginald William Gregg, 18, of Conyers was arrested early Thursday morning and is facing two counts of Entering an Automobile.
A 16 year old juvenile male is also facing two counts of Entering an Automobile.
"This is a great example of the effectiveness of CompStat," said Sheriff Eric Levett. "Since our first CompStat meeting in early June, the deputies and supervisors have targeted the areas that we've identified as our crime hot spots. Hopefully these apprehensions are just the first of many as we deploy deputies to where the current crime trends are occurring. I want to commend our deputies and investigators for working together and detecting the trend of entered autos and burglaries that allowed us to develop a coordinated response to the area."
CompStat, which is short for Computer Statistics or Comparative Statistics, is a management process that was started in 1994 by the New York City Police Department. The focus of CompStat is the analysis of current crime trends, strategic problem solving, and accountability. Once a crime trend or problem area has been identified, the command staff strategizes and develops specific deployment tactics to address the identified problems. CompStat goes beyond "extra patrols" for an area. Each problem or crime trend that is detected looks at finding the root causes of the problem, and then the command staff determines a response, which often involves the community members of the area.
The RCSO began integrating CompStat into the operations of the Sheriff's Office on June 12. While still in its beginning stages, these arrests demonstrate the effectiveness of CompStat as a tool in fighting crime, according to the RCSO.
