Utopia Homeowners Security Association

Cmdr. Manny Morales  786-300-1479

7-21-14

Today marks my one year anniversary as your Coconut Grove Police Commander. As I thought back on the events that transpired in that short time, I have vivid memories of all the great residents I have met, the new partnership that we have formed, and the many challenges that we have faced together. I took the opportunity to look back and compare our performance to previous years:

Mid-Year

Thefts, Burglaries, Robberies, Assaults, Sexual Crimes
Year	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014
Incidents	938	902	960	796	717	701	713	677	579

So far in 2014, we are experiencing the lowest rate of incidents since 2006, which is as far as our computerized system would allow me to research. In addition to our lower crime rate, our officers have been proactively seeking and apprehending those who would affect our quality of life and violate the law, our mid-year arrest total of 714 is our highest numbers since 2010. Our current numbers are truly a representation of the hard work your grove officers put forth each and every day in conjunction with the continued assistance from our residents and crime watchers. I have been fortunate to have a great group of professionals working with me to provide professional law enforcement services to our community and to have a community teeming with motivated individuals willing to make a difference as part of our crime watch groups.

2014 has been a very an exciting year so far, we saw the Grand Opening of our Coconut Grove Police Office at 3727 Grand Avenue, a testament to the perseverance of our community members to add police presence to our neighborhood. We experienced a renewed and refreshed partnership with Ms. Etta Mills from the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office and our All Grove Crime Watch volunteers in our “Court Watch” program. The program was responsible for keeping criminals affecting our neighborhood longer in jail. The Coconut Grove Business Improvement District installed 10 new cameras that allow further coverage within our commercial core.

I am keenly aware that numbers offer no comfort to those few that have been affected by crime. I assure you that we will not “rest on our laurels” and allow our success to deter us from our ultimate goal of completely eliminating crime in Coconut Grove. In an effort to continue our recent success, I will continue to:

• Identify our neighborhood challenges through coordinated community/police assessments.
• Collect and analyze information about the issues affecting the Grove from reports and citizen complaints.
• Develop and implement responses with the potential for eliminating or reducing the issues by implementing crime fighting/preventing strategies.
• Evaluate the responses to determine the effectiveness and ensure desired the effect in solving our issues.

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank all the members of our community that have assisted in making our neighborhood a better place to live and visit. I am excited to see what the future holds and how much more we can accomplish, especially now that I am not only your police commander, but your neighbor as well. As always, if you see any criminal or suspicious activity call 911 immediately.

Respectfully,

Commander Manuel A. Morales

In the past few weeks we have identified several criminal trends and patterns in the City of Miami and neighboring municipalities.

1. Theft of rims from high end vehicles (Mercedes, Audi, Lexus) – the thefts are occurring during late night hours. Offenders are using cargo or mini vans to transport rims after theft.

Prevention – purchase rim locks.

2. Theft of air bags from older model Nissan and Hondas. – Offenders are gaining access to the vehicle by damaging the driver’s side lock.

Prevention and possible deterrent – steering wheel locking device.

3. Theft of spare rear tire from Jeep Wranglers.

Prevention – wheel lock device.

The peak hours these incidents are taking place is during the late night or early morning hours (12A-5A).

Please pass along the information to your friends and neighbors. If you see any suspicious or criminal activity call 911 immediately.

Thank you and Stay Safe.

Cmdr. Manuel Morales

On July 7th, 2014 at 11:15 pm, our [City of Miami Police] night time patrol units responded to 3200 Frow Ave in reference to a car break-in in progress. Upon the arrival of the units the offenders had fled the scene.

At 12:10 Am Units responded to 3401 Oak Ave in reference to a car break-in in progress, but again upon the arrival of the units the offenders had fled the scene.

At 2:05 am, Unit responded to 2630 Overbrook St in reference to a car break-in in progress, but again units failed to contact the offenders.

Officers Rosario and Grass were determined to locate the offenders that appeared to have committed all 3 break-ins and were actively engaged in a crime spree. They were able to locate 2 offenders matching the description given by the witnesses and in possession of the items stolen from the vehicles. The offenders also matched the description of several males that have been seen in the areas of Zone 1 and 2 checking multiple car doors and we suspect that they are responsible for multiple incidents.

Detective Betty Nelson of the Burglary Unit is conducting a follow up investigation to attempt to link the offenders to other grove crimes.

Mr. Carlos Manuel Padron was arrested with a juvenile (whose information will not be released).

I will keep you posted on our crime fighting efforts.

Thanks

Commander Manuel A. Morales