‘Powerless’ and ‘frustrated’ DeKalb County neighbors hoping for ‘crime crackdown’ on their street

Ashli Lincoln
·3 min read

Channel 2 Action News investigative reporter Ashli Lincoln brought you a story from frustrated residents in DeKalb County after they said their neighborhood is plagued with drug deals, prostitution, fights and robberies.

Now, they’re hoping for a crime crackdown that neighbors living on Iris Lane would certainly welcome.

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Channel 2 found out the county’s police department is aware of residents’ concerns and last month, it initiated a detail to get prostitution off the streets.

“I moved here in 1989,” neighbor Joscelyn O’neil said.

O’neil says neighborhood pride motivates her to maintain her property and advocate for safety.

“I clean Iris Lane up,” she said. “It’s just a bad area.”

She and other residents are leading the push to clean up the Glenwood Road-Interstate 285 corridor of drugs, homelessness and prostitution.

“We’ve been plagued here in the last few years, with a lot of ladies of evening … prostitution,” O’neil said.

These are concerns that Iris Lane’s neighbors voiced earlier this week.

“It’s a blight and it’s unnecessary,” Tanya Watkins said on Sunday.

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Watkins said prostitution and drug activity in the area are so bad she can’t even let her son outside to play.

“I had crime victims come to my home seeking help, I had a man on drugs seeking help,” Watkins said.

Channel 2 caught up with DeKalb County police chief Mirtha V. Ramos during the police department’s annual National Night Out, a night where law enforcement seeks to enhances its relationship with the community.

She said the department’s presence and efforts have been productive.

“Our goal is to stay in the area, not just do it for one week or two and then leave, we want to make it to be impactful,” Ramos said.

She said the department is aware of the illegal activity since last month when it initiated a prostitution detail along Glenwood Road.

“They’re along the corridor, they’ve been visiting the businesses, making their presence known,” Ramos said.

The department’s initiative is into its third week and she says the numbers show hope.

“When you compare that with the previous week, that had six violent crime incidents along this corridor, last week we had zero,” Ramos said.

Ramos says removing the homeless from this subdivision isn’t as easy as it seems.

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“There are people who don’t want assistance and when people don’t want assistance and they’re on private property, there’s not too much at times that we can do,” she said.

Residents like O’neil are hoping the department continues with this until prostitution and drug activity are eradicated in the area.

“But constantly we have people coming into that area,” O’neil said.

Channel 2 found out from the DeKalb County Solicitor’s Office that it has a very successful seven program diversion unit.

The office says that through these programs, it has been able to reduce the number of repeat offenders, but Ramos says the police department will continue to assess this Glenwood detail to see if it needs to stay in place longer than six weeks.

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