Neighborhood Watch – Meeting Highlights
Neighborhood Watch – Meeting Highlights
First and foremost – We are "officially" certified by the MPD and the city as a Neighborhood Watch community and we are entitled to some extra perks.
Extra patrols – you can call our precinct, Appling Station and request additional patrols for the neighborhood. You will get one additional patrol per shift.
Leaving for vacation – you can call the precinct and give them details of your trip. They will stop by daily, check your house and make sure your doors are locked, windows are secure, etc. They won’t pick up the newspaper though.
Officer Murray, who works the 2-10pm shift, is responsible for patrolling this neighborhood attended and spoke to us in detail about a lot of topics. Some of those included:
Gun storage in cars
Storing valuables in cars
Leaving lights on at night
He made it clear that most vehicle break ins occur because criminals are looking for either stored guns in the glove box or they spot loose change. He recommended to remove everything from your cars and to prevent unnecessary damage to windows and locks, think about leaving your cars unlocked. It goes against common logic, but if your car is going to be stolen, they will break in; locked or unlocked. If they are looking for valuables, they will break in a window or damage a lock. If you have nothing to offer them, let them open the car door and check for themselves. Save the $$ on the broken window.
Soliciting – the question was brought up to the Officer about when is it appropriate to call the police on a solicitor and does the police look at calls like this as a waste of their time and resources. The Officer was quite vocal on this topic. He made is VERY clear that he has a zero tolerance policy towards soliciting. He said a few interesting points on the matter: Magazine salesman are generally ex-cons. Homeowner confrontations with any solicitors is not recommended because things can escalate quickly and quite often the homeowner ends up with an aggravated assault charge against them. The Officer insisted that you call 545-COPS. He went even farther to go on a rant about home security alarm salesman and his disgust with their tactics. He repeated many times that calls to 545-COPS for solicitors in the neighborhood IS NOT a waste of resources.
Citizens Police Academy – it’s a 9 week course – beginning after Labor Day. It includes a ride along with a cop during a shift of your choice. Available for those 18 and older.
4th of July – Due to the excessive number of 911 calls made from our neighborhood last year regarding fireworks, the Officer made it clear that there will be patrols in the neighborhood and he will be issuing tickets and shutting down anyone who is setting off fireworks. He recommended going to Bellevue to Walnut Lakes to watch the shows.
Cop Stop – Our Neighborhood will be hosting a Cop Stop in September. Contact Jan Meister at 304 Cross Breeze Dr. to volunteer.