SPRINGTIME CRIMES - When the weather begins to warm, it seems that everyone wants to move to outdoor activities. There seems to be an abundance of yard clean up, shrub trimming, flower planting and garden preparation to be accomplished. It is also the time when some of the criminals may just be out enjoying the fresh air and may observe a diligent property owner concentrating completely on the outside improvements and leaving the front door or the garage door wide open. OPPORTUNITY STRIKES!! We must admit that hindsight is a good educator but it does little to sooth over the pain of being a victim.

Outdoor work scams get into full swing about this time of the year. "This has been a bad winter for your roof and it should be reworked before the spring rains begin in full. I can ‘coat’ it and save you bundles of money" is a good line they may use for a trusting senior citizen. Try to watch for home improvement work done by strangers to a neighbor’s house and check with the neighbor about it being authorized. With the burglars breaking into houses to steal the copper wiring and plumbing, any unmarked van or truck parked outside an unoccupied house should be made note of by writing down the license plate number and a brief description if your suspicions are not strong enough to call the police to check the situation. Keep your written notes in case they may be needed later.

NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH - We have had a number of inquiries recently to our Website concerning starting a Neighborhood Watch within each of their associations. Until I attended the conference in Greenwood, S.C. on Neighborhood Watch Toolkit Training, I based my answers on my twenty plus years of experience with Concerned Citizen’s Watch. CCW is a Neighborhood Watch, but it has been modified to include more than watching neighborhoods by helping the police in other areas of crime prevention and inclusion of multiple Neighborhood Watch groups. My answers to the inquiries mentioned above did not encompass enough information nor did they include some of the most important ingredients of a Neighborhood Watch.

Two NECESSARY ingredients of a Neighborhood Watch are individual member commitment and the inclusion of law enforcement into the N.W. operations. The phrase "Eyes and Ears of the Police" means that members ONLY report what they see or hear to law enforcement and take NO actions to stop or hold the criminal. The police will take over handling the case at your report. The police should be responsible, through a Liaison Officer, to teach Neighborhood Watch members how to observe and report different crimes, what to observe and what is currently happening within their association that needs the members’ help. You may feel that you don’t need instruction in these areas, but you don’t drive a car blind-folded even though you know how to drive either. The police have the knowledge of current criminal activity and can provide enough information that will help you to help them.

On the individual member "commitment", being a member is a twenty-four hour a day job. Even while you sleep, your ears are tuned in for loud noises happening around you. You open your front door to get your paper and you should be glancing up and down your street to see what is there and what may be happening.

I will take an intermission from this subject and leave you with thoughts and questions.

If you were to start a Neighborhood Watch, what would you like it to accomplish? Who would you enlist as members? More later.