Mount Dora’s carjacking solution: new streetlights

The city of Mount Dora thinks it has a solution after a downtown carjacking occurred during the late hours of a recent weekend: shining beacons of crime prevention — upgraded streetlights.

The city has invited merchants in the boutique-dense lakeside community to meet 5:30 p.m. Thursday at the Barrel of Books and Games downtown for general concerns and to address how to deal with the things that go bump at night.

“I’ve been here five years, and I think this is maybe our second carjacking downtown,” said Mount Dora Police Chief John O’Grady. “But you know what, it’s all part of the holistic approach. … what we call crime prevention through environmental design.”

Residents are fretting after a patron left the Magical Meat Boutique restaurant 1:30 a.m. Nov. 5 and was accosted by man who pointed a silver handgun to his face, robbed him of $900 and drove off with his 2007 Volkswagen.

“We got a great reputation and a lot of retirees, and the things I see on social media and at the water cooler is concern,” said Mount Dora city council member Mark Slaby, who did not seek reelection Nov. 7.

“You know people, of course when they have concern they don’t really care about statistics because it’s just how they feel,” he said.

Mount Dora’s rate of reported crimes is so low that a single homicide can skew the data and cause it to skyrocket, O’Grady said.

He also said the stolen Volkswagen was recovered in the neighboring city of Eustis, along with two suspects, and police are trying to find out if they are “from the original carjacking.”

Akhtar Hussain said the carjacking victim is a regular at his Mount Dora cafe, the Village Coffee Pot.

“He told me about what happened … my opinion — lighting is good, but lighting is not enough,” said Hussain, who called for a police officer to patrol downtown constantly.

Nonetheless, Mount Dora’s utility department plans to review its streetlights, seek out improvements and trim obstructing trees if need be.

In theory, street lights reduce crimes of opportunity by taking away would-be criminals’ cover of darkness. Studies show that across a broad number of cities, such as Atlanta and New Orleans, the effectiveness of increasing nighttime lighting is mixed.

New bulbs could have other benefits.

The city of Orlando is more than halfway done replacing 14,000 street lights with LEDs that save on energy and limit light pollution. Mount Dora already added LED poles, but could approve a consultant to evaluate lighting in older parking lots downtown.

“We don’t need it, that kind of orange nasty lights you know, you put in the parking lots,” Hussain said. “They can put lights that match the lights we have.”

“…my opinion — lighting is good, but lighting is not enough,” Akhtar Hussain, owner of the Village Coffee Pot