Sheriff Rekindles Neighborhood Watches

Written by Brian Shane, Staff Writer

Posted October 26, 2011 on the DelmarvaNOW.com

SNOW HILL -- Sheriff Reggie Mason is fulfilling a campaign promise by reviving Worcester County's Neighborhood Crime Watch program.

The sheriff and his deputies, along with Worcester County State's Attorney Beau Oglesby, have met with residents of Stockton, Girdletree, Bishopville and Newark about the initiative. Next, the Sheriff's Office will meet with neighbors in Oyster Harbor, Friendship, Germantown, South Point and Whaleyville, according to Detective Dale Trotter, who heads up the crime watch under the department's Community Policing Division.

Mason said he's "tickled" the program will return under his tenure as sheriff.

"I'm very happy. I always liked this program, and I wanted to get it back," he said. "It's all about neighbor looking after neighbor. Hopefully, we'll get some of these smaller parts of the county covered before the year is out. This is one thing I wanted to get back in the communities."

He hopes Crime Watch can help build stronger relationships between the community and the deputies on patrol.

Trotter said people sometimes are afraid to call police and report unusual activity at a neighbor's home or to report a crime in progress, based on a fear of retaliation or having to go to court. It's a mindset he's trying to turn around.

"We're trying to get people to look out, keep their eyes open for suspicious activity, for anything that's out of the ordinary," he said. "Don't be afraid to call the police -- you can call and be anonymous. Breathe life into your community so you know your neighbor, and you take care of each other."

One of the problems, according to Trotter, is people sometimes believe if nothing is happening in their neighborhood, they don't think they need a Crime Watch.

"However, I think that's when you need a Crime Watch the most," he said. "Generally speaking, if nothing's going on, it's out of your mind. You don't think about it."

The concept of a neighborhood watch emerged in the late 1970s, Mason said. Worcester had an active Neighborhood Crime Watch program that was developed in the early 1990s under Sheriff Chuck Martin. But the deputy sheriff in charge at that time retired, Trotter said, and the department shifted its manpower to other projects.

Pocomoke City, Berlin and Snow Hill already have their own version of a neighborhood watch, Trotter said. The Ocean City police have established eight individual neighborhood watch groups throughout the resort, from Boardwalk business owners downtown to the north Ocean City residents of the Caine Woods development, according to spokesman Pfc. Mike Levy.

Now that Sheriff Mason is pushing to revitalize the department's community policing efforts, there are other duties deputies will take on. Trotter said he'll personally come out to a person's home for a security evaluation, to see if a person's property is unkempt and a target for thieves.

For kids, he also dresses up as the police mascot character Safety Pup.

"That's been like a big joke, between my friends," Trotter said. "They laugh at me when I dress up like a dog. It's a cartoon character that goes out, talks to the kids, talks about safety. It's a big hit, really."

Ultimately, Trotter said the top priority of the Community Policing Division is to get the word out that "the Sheriff's Office is available for your organization, for your meeting," he said. "We'd like to come out and introduce ourselves, let people know that we put our pants on the same way you do, and we really care about the community."

So far, police efforts already have worked to address one nuisance issue in Stockton.

In meeting with residents, law enforcement found there was a residence that had been vacant for more than a year. Neighbors were reporting the lights were on, and they suspected squatters.

An investigation found that while the home was still empty, and in some disrepair, the owners had left the electricity on because the basement would often flood in a rainstorm and they needed to maintain power to the sump pump. The home has since been cleaned up "and it's not an eyesore anymore to the community," Trotter said.

Reggie Hancock, 81, of Stockton attended the first meeting between neighbors and law enforcement. He said there were about eight people at the meeting, and blamed the low turnout on Hurricane Irene, which passed Delmarva that week.

"They showed real interest in helping our community," said Hancock, a retired state trooper and former Worcester County Commissioner. "As time goes on, perhaps interest (from residents) will grow... Overall, I really think the Sheriff's Office is trying to make an effort to help small communities. We're just encouraged they're paying some attention to us and trying to correct some of these problems."

Hancock said his Crime Watch group will meet quarterly, and suspects the next meeting will fall around the holiday season. He remembers how the last version of the neighborhood watch died out.

"This time, there appears to be more determination and concern, so I trust this one will be more successful," he said.

bshane@dmg.gannett.com

410-213-9442, ext. 17

Neighborhood Watch Empowers Residents

Written by Helen Niemiec, Correspondent

Posted October 23, 2011 in the Observer & Eccentric

It was shortly after 4 a.m. when a Redford Township resident peered out his window and saw two people walking down the sidewalk. Then they seemed to disappear.

Knowing that there were vacant houses nearby, he got suspicious and called 9-1-1.

“It was great,” said Police Officer Jennifer Mansfield, the officer in charge of Neighborhood Watch. “Officers were able to catch the criminals inside the house, while they were cutting up copper to steal. These criminals later confessed to a total of six burglaries in the area.”

The three pieces of Neighborhood Watch, Mansfield said, are commitment to the community, familiarity with your neighbors and education.

The police can arrest and the police can investigate, but it is the people who live in a neighborhood who are the best “eyes and ears” for police, since officers can't be everywhere.

The sour economy has produced an increased number of break-ins, thefts and other “crimes of opportunity” throughout the region, including Redford. Another fact of a bad economy is the vacant homes and an influx of new residents because house prices or rent becomes more affordable.

The combination of those economic realities plus neighbors not knowing each other can create a cauldron of more criminal opportunities.

Redford had a strong watch program 15 years ago but with a strong economy at the time, there were fewer incidences of thefts so the interest waned. Redford is combating the crime rate battle by pushing for more blocks to get involved in the Neighborhood Watch program. Neighbors are encouraged to get to know each other, talk about what they notice and then get updates from the police department and also training in such things as “what is a suspicious activity.”

“Some areas have very strong Neighborhood Watch groups,” Mansfield said. “They are doing a great job of making calls.”

The strongest areas include the Jefferson Neighborhood Association, Pickford and Brady. Mansfield's wish list includes strong Neighborhood Watch groups in the Five Points, where the township limits are, areas east of Beech and the very center of the township.

More help needed

Currently there are 115 block captains representing 80 blocks in the township. “It's a good number but I'd love to see 250 block captains and then we'd be covered,” she said.

“These people are taking responsibility for the safety of their neighborhood. It's also a great way to strengthen the neighborhood because everyone gets to know each other,” she explained.

Neighborhood Watch isn't a huge time commitment, with update meetings held only every four to six weeks, but more of a promise to keep one's eyes open and report suspicious activities.

Watch members have access to a special website that Mansfield maintains, with information about crime in the neighborhoods, ongoing investigations and the meeting schedule for the watch groups.

“Membership has its privileges, as they say. I don't want to make it a public website because then the bad guys know who we're looking for or when all of our homeowners are at a meeting and leaving houses unguarded,” Mansfield said.

All residents have access to the Redford Township website, where the police department updates general information and can sign up for Nixle crime alerts that are sent as text messages to phones.

“It has definitely helped,” Mansfield said of the rejuvenation of the watch program.

At the meetings, people ask questions, share information and Mansfield will present a topic about how to help the police. Her most recent presentation was on how to determine what suspicious activity is.

“The people have gotten good with this part. They're calling us more often and more regularly now with good information,” Mansfield said. “As a matter of fact, the other officers are asking me to tell them to call earlier. They are so worried about being wrong that they wait until they're absolutely certain before they call. With an earlier contact, we can check it out and if it's a bad guy, we can arrest them while in the act. If they call too late, we get a description and a license plate number.”

Often those plates have been stolen so it's a dead end for investigations.

“We're all learning so that's the good part,” Mansfield said.

Neighborhood policing

With a large turnover in neighborhoods and the current trend of people spending more hours indoors, many don't see what is going on right outside their houses. People aren't outside or in their yards as much, aren't chatting with neighbors over the fence and don't really know anyone who doesn't live within a house or two of their own home.

Mansfield and Police Chief Eric Gillman said reigniting the old way of life, getting to know the neighbors, is the critical piece in a successful Neighborhood Watch program.

“It breaks down a lot of stereotypes, when you get to know the people on your block,” Mansfield said.

Gillman said that homeowners often have looked upon renters as a transient part of their neighborhood and therefore not desirable. In this economy, he said, renting often is the best a family can do at the time.

“We have tons of regular renters who are vested in the community. They are long-term renters and they are as committed to the community as the person who owns a home,” Gillman said.

Another stereotype that is being dashed is that homeowners who have left Detroit for Redford are not going to become a part of the community.

“You have to realize that people who moved here from Detroit or any community, they came here because they want a better life. These newcomers can be our strongest support of a watch program because they don't want their new neighborhood to become what they left,” Gillman said. “The new people are like the longtime residents who want to keep the neighborhood safe and have a place our kids can walk down the street.”

Mansfield recently put together a Neighborhood Watch picnic, something she plans to do annually. Members from across the township came together for an afternoon of socializing and sharing information and thoughts.

The grassroots efforts are paying dividends, Mansfield said.

“This has been getting people to take responsibility for their neighborhood. You want your officers to catch the crooks and we need to information to get them. It's a good working arrangement,” Mansfield said.

Individuals who want more information or want to start a watch program on their block should send an e-mail to Mansfield at jmansfield2@redfordpd.org.

Street Lights Out For Months In Southwest Fresno Neighborhood

By: Rich Rodriguez

Posted: Sep 03, 2011 8:11 PM PDT

See the KMPH post HERE

The street lights have been off for weeks in a Southwest Fresno neighborhood.   Residents have complained to the city but so far its pitch black ever night after the sun goes down.

The neighborhood near Clinton and Brawley has been without street lights for more than two months.   Long time resident Charges Fuller says vandals are responsible for the street lights going out.  "The wires have been cut to the posts.   I think they took the copper out of them."

Fuller has lived in the neighborhood for six years.   After the vandals hit he called the city. "When I called it in they needed the post numbers.   So I called the post numbers in and they told me it would take up to four months to make the repairs."

Gurdevp Shergill got the same reply when he called city hall.   He's lived in the neighborhood for seven years and he wants the city repair crews to move faster.  "We're just so concerned about the kids, about our families, people breaking into our house, kids getting run over by the cars or the cars crashing into each other.   It's a big concern that we have no light in the neighborhood.   The whole neighborhood."

Shergill says things have changed since the lights went out back in June.   He says just last week one of his neighbors was broken into after dark.

Shergill has complained to his city councilman Oliver Baines.  The councilman says he's working on the problem but so far it's still dark at night in Shergill's neighborhood.

Why is crime in the US at a historic low?

By Sudhir Venkatesh

Posted in the guardian.co.uk

Wednesday 31 August 2011 16.30 BST 

See the full post HERE

We may never know precisely what causes crime, but we know a lot about what can beat it: active citizens in strong communities.

Rudi Giuliani, mayor of New York (1993-2002): during his tenure, crime in the city fell dramatically, though the trend did pre-date his mayoralty and has continued since. Photograph: AP Photo/Gino Domenico

Nothing stirs up the American policymaking community like talking about crime. This is understandable when crime skyrockets, but anxiety levels have remained high even as America's crime rate has descended to its lowest level in 40 years. Scholars and wonks rush so quickly to claim credit – as quickly as they seek refuge to avoid blame – that getting to the core of the problem is not so easy. But when you leave aside the politicking, you find that it's actually more important to understand community responses to crime, rather than to figure out exactly how or why crime persists.

But fads are not easy to ignore. Consider the latest intellectual fashion that links imprisonment with reductions in crime rates. Simple enough in principle, but is it truthful (or just "truthy")? The chief proponent, besides US police and sheriff associations, is public policy Professor James Wilson, who argues that lengthier penal sentences keeps potential criminals behind bars.

In the other corner, groups like the Sentencing Project beg to differ, with some nifty statistics to prove their point (pdf) – for example, that the states where imprisonment was below the national average experienced the greatest drops in crime. It would be silly to ignore the positive effects of incarceration – some offenders do tend to transgress repeatedly over the life course, so keeping them off the streets is smart. But, it is equally foolhardy to think that incarceration is the always best answer. Canada, for instance, has much lower incarceration rates than the US, yet its crime rate is also low.

The problem is making generalisations across all crimes and across all US cities and states. Criminologists still really don't understand why Chicago's youth homicide rate went through the roof last year, while New York's stayed at a near-historic low. My colleague, "Freakonomics" economist Steven Levitt, shows that changing drug habits can affect some crimes but not others: homicides dropped after the early 1990s as crack became less popular, but other crimes did not.

Instead of studying why crime occurs, we should instead be looking at the capacity of communities to take action against it. Local public safety depends on the locals who can respond to criminal and delinquent acts before they destroy the social fabric. No region in America is free from social problems, but communities differ widely in terms of the capacity among citizens to respond. Recent research suggests that rather than fighting criminals directly, it may be as advantageous to help communities fight against crime. As we champion our favourite deterrents – prisons on the right, job growth on the left, we may want to remember that an active citizenry, able to defend itself, is a proven ingredient for ensuring public safety.

Tracey Meares, Yale University's renowned legal scholar, has demonstrated the power of "take back the night" vigils and protests for warding off criminals, especially when religious leaders lead the crusade and bring police aboard. Social scientists at Harvard argue that the best predictor for low crime rates is the "collectively efficacious" behaviour of residents – a fancy phrase that refers to the ability of neighbours to work together when things go awry. And David Kennedy has shown proven results with his "Ceasefire" programme, which focuses on issuing real threats to criminals, with consequences that are delivered swiftly.

Such efforts fall under a large umbrella called "community policing", which took off in the 1990s – and in Europe, the decade after. President Clinton helped cities hire 100,000 cops. Urban mayors from Chicago to Seattle to New York built local coalitions of residents, businesspersons, clergy, school principals and other so-called "stakeholders" who could respond to crime before it spiralled out of control.

The power of such coalition-style policing lies in the phalanx of crime fighters that confronts local criminals: not only do the perps feel the weight of the law around them, but they come to believe that law enforcement is sincere when it threatens to lock up criminals. In short, truth in advertising has proven to be an excellent deterrent to crime.

But "community policing" is subject to interpretation – and not surprisingly, left and right differ in predictable ways. Advocates of gun rights are quick to call for the need for relaxed weapons laws, while those on the left want community organisations to become even more empowered with federal funding and services.

Don't expect any of these debates to get settled soon. Instead, I'd recommend a simple exercise when the next theory about crime rates makes headlines. Ask yourself, what do communities do when crime occurs? Can they act "efficaciously"? Or are they held hostage by gangs, car thieves, vandals and other criminals? We may never understand with great precision what causes crime, but we can always empower citizens to respond when it occurs.

Armed Fresno County: Dramatic Increase in Concealed Weapons

Article by Corin Hoggard.

Posted by ABC30 on Friday, August 19, 2011

Read the article on ABC30's website HERE.

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Fresno County is getting armed as the number of concealed weapons permits is rising drastically.

"I hear it's the number one issue of importance to people in Fresno County -- to be able to legally carry a concealed weapon," said Sheriff Margaret Mims.

The numbers show the increase has been dramatic. Last year, the Mims's office issued about 1500 concealed weapons permits. Through July of this year, the number was already about 1900. That puts the county on pace to issue more than 3000 permits in 2011.

Fresno County is now second in the state in issuing concealed weapons permits. One big trend Action News has already reported on is women getting permits. And many people applying for permits have a simple explanation: they're just afraid.

At the courthouse and in the office, attorney Peter Kapetan knows he could come across a dangerous situation, so he got a concealed weapons permit and started carrying a gun.

"Normally, I keep it locked and if I go out in the field, I'll carry one with me," he said.

Kapetan's permit expired, so he's re-applying. But because of a dramatic increase in applications, he'll wait about seven months for an interview with the Fresno County sheriff's office.

"Crime has skyrocketed and with the budget constraints, guys are getting let out of jail every day and I think people are starting to realize the police aren't always going to be there, so they're taking it into their own hands," Kapetan said.

Trainers at the Police Science Institute in northwest Fresno teach a required concealed weapons course for gun owners, focusing on gun safety, and when and where you can carry your weapon.

"It's not to be taken lightly," said trainer Steve Collins. "You also have to consider changes in your lifestyle. Maybe you'd like to go home and have a beer on your way home today. Well, if you've got a gun, you can't do that."

In 2007, Fresno County had 2727 active concealed weapons permits. Los Angeles County had 1237. And in all of San Francisco County, there were six permits.

The number in Fresno County has shot up to 4368 now, according to Mims, partly because she's lowered the bar for approving new applications. While other sheriffs require an imminent danger, she'll approve an application just for self-protection.

"I'd much rather have law-abiding citizens armed because our bad guys certainly are," Mims said.

The Fresno Police Department also issues concealed weapons permits. They have a much shorter waiting list, but they require eight hours of weapons training. The sheriff requires six hours.

(Copyright ©2011 KFSN-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)