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Pensacola PD alerts residents of crime

Pensacola Police said a recent spree of burglaries in several communities prompted them to use a new system in an effort to keep crime from spreading.

Lt. Tom Lyter with the Pensacola Police Department said a crime analyst puts the pieces together using reports to map out crime trends throughout the city.

"It starts with the identification of a crime and the type of crime in a geographical location," Lyter said.

Lyter said each location is separated into a grid.

"If we get an increase in a particular type of crime, whether it's auto or home burglaries, we can make notifications to residents in that section of town," Lyter said.

Lyter said those notifications come through phone calls from police, complete with a recorded message warning residents.

Police used the system last week after almost ten vehicle burglaries were reported around Lakeview and 14 th Avenue.

Betty Gabriel said she knows several neighbors whose cars were hit by thieves.

She said she's glad police are using the system.

"I think it's a great idea. I know they called me, and I really appreciated their calling me. I knew about it already, but I still appreciated they took the trouble to let us know what's going on," Gabriel said.

Lyter said in the recent case of burglaries where the system was used, the burglars went house to house just trying to find vehicle doors that were left unlocked.

However, in the case of more serious crimes, the system would help as well.

"The beauty of it is we decide when we want to use it. If we see a crime trend, it could be absolutely anything," Lyter said. "We have a limited number of police officers. When you can bring the citizens into this and notify them, they become the eyes and ears of the police department,"

No arrests have been made in the burglaries.

Pensacola Police said the warning calls can only be made to landlines right now.

However, they hope to be able to add cell phones to the system soon.

If you have any information on the burglaries, contact the Pensacola Police Department.