Dear residents,

School's back. A new school year has begun and once again hundreds of kids dread going because they're the victim of some form of bullying. Increasingly, that form is "cyberbullying."

Cell phones with email connections and unlimited texting, and Internet social networking sites have given young bullies a sophisticated "technological forum" – limited only by their imagination – in which to aggressively inflict psychological and sexual harassment on their peers.

Cyberbullying may well be the most pressing Internet safety issue young people face today. Like traditional forms of bullying, its victims have lower self esteem and a variety of negative emotional responses, including being scared, frustrated, humiliated, angry and depressed.

The effects of ridicule in cyberbullying messages are sometimes so strong that they can lead to suicide. It's rare, but there have been several widely-reported cases in the U.S.

Victims and perpetrators of cyberbullying are twice as likely to be girls. When it comes to telling someone to get help, preteens are more likely to tell a parent or teacher, while teens were more likely to tell a friend. Over half of all cyberbullying is not even reported to adults at all.

Please pay attention to what your child is doing online or with his/her cell phone. It's not easy, I know, but a conscious effort on your part may help your child when he/she needs it the most.

NetSmartz and i-SAFE are good online resources to help you recognize and deal with any cyberbullying your child may be involved in.

Stay safe,

Sgt. Debra Kalish
Community Services

P.S.  If you received this copy from someone else, sign up here to get your own copy each month.

Learn how to reduce crime in your neighborhood by joining us at Police Headquarters on Sept. 15 at 7 p.m. for an "Introduction to PACT," the JCPD's new neighborhood watch program open to all Johns Creek residents.

The goal of PACT (Police and Community Together) is to bring residents and police officers together on a regular basis to communicate and work together to prevent residential criminal activity.

There is NO COST involved. Member neighborhoods receive PACT entrance signs, crime alerts and regular communication with the PACT officer assigned to them.

Every neighborhood is encouraged to send one representative to this session to learn more, share and discuss the information and then sign up.

RSVP or call 678-474-1561. Directions to Police Headquarters.

In an annual survey released at this summer's National Teen Summit on Internet and Wireless Safety more than one-third of U.S. teens (ages 13-18) questioned said they had been cyberbullied or knew someone who had been cyberbullied. About 4 in 5 teens think that bullying online is easier to get away with or to hide from their parents than bullying in person.

• Always use parental controls available through Internet service providers;
• Maintain an ongoing dialogue about what your teen is doing online, who they are talking to and how they are accessing the Internet;
• Do your own research about social networking/Web sites your children visit.

If your child is a victim of physical or sexual assault through some form of bullying, call 911 immediately. These are serious offenses that need to be handled by police and entered on the perpetrator's record. School administrators can only take some actions.

More than a third of the traffic violators that appear in Johns Creek Municipal Court are under the age of 21. Most of them have been driving for less than two years and half of those have prior traffic violations.

Concern over this disproportionate number of young violators has led to a new teen driver intervention program called STOP (Solicitor/Teen/Officer/Parent), open to all drivers 16-20 years old who have received a traffic violation from Johns Creek Police.

The program is designed to educate young traffic violators before their bad driving habits become permanent and they face more serious violations as adults or worse, cause a car accident, the number one cause of American teen deaths.

STOP has a Mandatory Module (court-ordered, includes a Victim Impact Panel), and a Voluntary Module (parents choose whether they want their teen to participate).

For more information, please call Court Services at 678-512-3444 or JCPD Community Services at 678-474-1587.

This Labor Day holiday weekend, Sept. 4-7, Johns Creek Police will set up sobriety check points in various locations across the city at unknown times and places to discourage drivers from drinking and enhance the JCPD's enforcement of Georgia's drunk driving laws.

Police officers will use a portable trailer, which contains the department's new Intoxilyzer 5000.

The JCPD is one of only a few law enforcement agencies in Georgia to have the state-of-the art, court-tested, noninvasive infrared alcohol testing analysis equipment available in the field.

• GBI:  Warning on Child Porn Video Attachment
• FBI:  Asian Extortion Scam
• FBI:  Car cloning
• FBI:  Oprah's Millionaire Contest
• FBI:  Fake military twist on online vehicle sales

Burglaries (Total 14): Abberly Township (1), Abbotts Bridge Place (1), AT&T on State Bridge Road (1),Camden Village (1), home on Bell Road (1), Country Club of the South (1), home on Findley Road (1), Medlock Bridge subdivision (1), St. Clair (1), Sugar Plum Kids (1), The Vicarage (1), Wellington (1), Wesley Park (1), Woodland Hills (1).

Car break-ins (Total 13): Addison Place Apartments (1), Falls at Autry Mill (1), Morgan Hill Court (1), Brumbelow Crossing (1), Emory Johns Creek Hospital, (1), Fox Creek (1), Huntington (1), Lifetime Fitness (1), Long Indian Creek (1), Newtown Park (1), Rivermont (1), St. Ives Country Club (1), Starbucks at Medlock Crossing Shopping Center (1).