ATLANTA — After dozens of burglaries at film production warehouses in the metro, Atlanta City Council will vote on creating a task force to tackle the issue.
Karlief Legend and his wife own the digital media production company: The Plug ATL.
Surveillance camera video from December shows a crew of several people breaking into his business, grabbing several items, and leaving in a matter of minutes.
According to Legend, the crew made off with several cameras and other equipment totaling $100,000. He called Chamblee Police and filed a report.
"As of right now we haven't heard any updates as it pertains to the case," Legend said during an interview with 11Alive on Thursday.
It is one of the dozens of similar burglaries happening in the past year around metro Atlanta specifically at film production companies.
According to data collected by the Atlanta City Council since January 2021, more than 40 burglaries have taken place at 30 different film production companies in the area. The losses total more than $3 million.
Most of the victims are locally owned small businesses, including The Plug ATL.
"It is very important if we are going to be serious and we want to protect our economic growth in the City of Atlanta that we protect the small people," Legend said. "It is very important that everybody be able to operate on the same playing field."
"We want to make sure that all of those, whether you're a major studio or a small entrepreneur, that your investment in Georgia is going to be safe," Atlanta City Councilmember Michael Julian Bond said.
In response to the crimes, Bond has proposed an ordinance to handle the crime by creating a metro-wide task force composed of representatives from area police departments. The proposal calls for the task force to be led by the Atlanta Police Department.
"The related departments in each of the affected jurisdictions would send their experts and they would begin to collaborate on focusing on making arrests and running down these criminals," Bond said.
The crimes are very well documented according to the councilmember and it appears one or two crews are behind many of the burglaries.
Online the proposed ordinance links to a spreadsheet detailing the crimes and includes video surveillance of many of the burglaries.
In many of the videos, crews of three to five people can be seen using a crowbar or other device to break in and they leave in a matter of minutes after grabbing various items.
An issue is that while some of the burglaries have happened within the city of Atlanta, many crisscross into other cities and counties.
According to information from the Atlanta City Council since January 2021 burglaries have hit film production companies in the cities of Atlanta, Avondale Estates, Chamblee, Doraville, East Point, Marietta, and Smyrna, as well as the counties of Cobb DeKalb, Forsyth, and Gwinnett.
Bond tells 11Alive his proposal has enough support that he expects it to pass during a city council meeting on Monday.
Legend said he approves of the proposal, but said for now he is also taking his own actions.
"Focused on making sure we beef up security and keep things protected and safe to make sure we can continue our business," Legend said.