Laura Allen is starting a neighborhood watch program in the Park Glen Heights community in Annandale. Right now, the group is determining how best to build its member base and interact with the community. Her advice to other watch program developers: The first step is figuring out how you will communicate.
Why did you decide to start a neighborhood watch program?
We recently had seven or eight vehicles broken into on one night. It came up during a neighborhood meeting on commercial vehicles parking on our streets. We felt the area had been ignored for a while and we wanted to improve our communication with police, and figured one way we could do that was through a neighborhood watch program.
Have people been interested in joining?
We have 87 homes, and the community board of directors is pretty much capped out. We’ve been able to recruit about 10 people who wanted to get involved in the community. We’re not done banging on doors. We’ve only just begun.
Has the police department been working with you?
The police provided information and held a training meeting. We established the goal of getting 100 percent of households through the training whether they want to participate in the watch program or not. That way we can all be a bit more aware.
What problems have you run into?
The biggest problem is that we’re not communicating as a neighborhood. When we had the car break-ins, people called police separately and then didn’t tell each other. We need to keep people aware of what’s going on. With the watch program, they’ll be able to contact us and we’ll spread the word to find out our weaknesses. But you also then have to figure out how to spread the word. We’re going to start a newsletter.
Has the program had any success yet?
It’s hard to say, but we’ve at least recognized some of our problem spots. We have two parks where people have been partying and throwing trash. We’re focusing now on cleaning up the trash. As the police said, a clean neighborhood is a safe neighborhood.
– Freeman Klopott
