Residents: Closing Alleys Won't Stop Burglars

If there’s not an alley behind your back yard, then there's probably one nearby if you live in Seminole Heights.

In many break-ins, that's where the burglars come from. The narrow paths that separate much of our backyards also give cover to roving thieves looking for an open shed or unlocked door.

When a recent rash of burglaries swept through Southeast Seminole Heights, closing the alleys probably seemed like a good idea to some residents.

“We get calls all day every day,” about closing alleys, said Jimmy Cook, right of way and mapping coordinator for the city's growth management and development services.

But that's almost always where the inquiry stops, despite the seemingly obvious anti-crime aspects of shutting off the alleys. What's perhaps less obvious to residents is all that's involved in getting an alley closed, and how easily the effort can be derailed.

Cook said the alleys are used by utility companies and cable providers and city departments, such as water and solid waste.

“Also the transportation department can review for access and circulation,” Cook said. “Plus FDOT (Florida Department of Transportation) can get involved if an alley ends in something like an Interstate, and they might need to widen it in the future.”

After a resident submits an official petition to the city's growth management and development services department to close an alley, any one of the above-mentioned entities has a right to object to the closing before the issue is decided before City Council. Even another resident can put a stop to the petition.

“If there's a neighbor with primary car access (to his or her house) on the alley,'' said Cook, “then it's probably going to get denied.”

On top of all that, the entire process can take up to three months. Hearing this usually discourages the would-be petitioner right at the first phone call. Cook said his office has not received any formal requests to initiate an alley closing in Seminole Heights this year. In fact, besides one alley closing in South Seminole Heights in November 2010, there haven’t been any alley closings in the area for 10 years, according to Cook.

This could be exasperating news to residents who come home to find their houses ransacked or sheds emptied.

Southeast Seminole Heights homeowner Jeanne Henry was one of the victims of the March-through-April burglary spree.

“My first feeling was shock,” she said, recalling coming home on April 12 to find a door on her carport pried open. “Then I had to get over the rage, because I lost some things that I couldn't replace.”

Yet Henry, who lives on the 900 block of East Chelsea Street and one block from an alley, hasn't petitioned for alley closings.

“I don't know if closing off the alleys would solve anything,” she said. “It seems to me if people want to rob you, they'll find a way.”

Southeast Seminole Heights Civic Association president Sherry Genovar-Simons says homeowner vigilance is the answer, not closing the alleys.

“A lot of times with these crimes, the person in the home hasn't exercised the care that they should,” she said. “I assure you that the minute you (close an alley), they'll think of another way to (break in).”

As for the recent wave of burglaries, Tampa police spokesperson Janelle McGregor said brothers Jamiel Feggins and Kenneth Feggins . The two have been charged with a total of seven break-ins in the neighborhood dating back to mid-March. Police found stolen items at Feggins' house at 1228 E. Osborne Ave., and at Value Pawn, 1502 E. Hillsborough Ave.

“We've managed to return property back to at least four families,” said McGregor.

Henry said that detectives have returned about 30 percent of her stolen items.

So with a preponderance of back alleys coursing our neighborhood, and an often slim chance of getting them closed, any notions of eradicating them are probably better replaced with another idea.

Watch your back, Seminole Heights.