[RP TownTalk] Neighborhood Watch Meeting minutes

[Sarah Wayland]

Hello to all,

I attended the Neighborhood Watch meeting on June 9th, and wrote up
meeting minutes. Read on for a boat-load of information about Public
Safety.

Neighborhood Watch Meeting
Saturday, June 9th 2 pm
Riverdale Park Town Hall

Meeting started with opening remarks by Maureen Farrington. She said
that 11 residential break-ins in May made her decide to mobilize the
neighborhood to help fight crime. She invited two people to talk to
residents about what they can do: Lieutenant Adams of the Riverdale
Park Police force, and Kim Lugo, Coordinator of the PG County District
1 Neighborhood Watch program.

Lieutenant Adams talked about the recent wave of crimes: What seems to
be going on, what the police are doing to help, and what we as
citizens can do.

(1) What has been happening?

- The recent round of break-ins occurred during the day on weekdays
(Monday - Friday). Most of the recent burglaries have been in Wards 1,
2 & 3. They are "smash & grab" robberies - where the burglar gets in
quickly, grabs anything they can find easily, and gets out as fast as
they can. Edmonston is also being targeted. Open windows seem to be
the primary point of entry. The burglars will often knock on the front
door, and if no one answers, go around to the back to break in.

- A CVS employee was bound and doused with gasoline while the robbers
stole money from the store safe.

- A number of cars were broken into, with windows smashed. These
seemed to be someone looking for spare change and other easy-to-grab
valuables (e.g., things left in the car).

- Drug dealing in some areas of town.

- 90% of the crime in town takes place on 54th Avenue and Kenilworth Avenue.

(2) What are the police doing?

The town has 2 full-time detectives who are working on the cases. If
your home was broken into, they may still need to contact you. With
only 2, it takes a while to investigate each incident thoroughly.

If you have the serial numbers of things that were stolen, the police
will register those numbers so that if the items show up in a pawn
shop, they will be notified.

Officer Prawdzik can come do a home security inspection and tell you
what you can do to secure your home. Call the police department at
301-927-4343 to schedule an appointment.

(3) What can residents do?

Watch "Thieves" (a Discovery Channel show.) That show really explained
how burglars do what they do, and when you know what they do, you can
figure out how to make your house, car, and belongings less of a
target.

Take the steps listed at the end of these minutes (compiled from
comments made by both Lt. Adams and Ms. Lugo) to secure your home,
become more aware of your surroundings, and report suspicious
behavior.

------------

After Lt. Adams, Ms. Farrington introduced Kim Lugo of College Park,
who coordinates the County Neighborhood Watch program for District 1
(from College Park to Cheverly).

Ms. Lugo told us how she got started (just like we are getting started now!)

For our town, with approximately 1000 single family homes, and 1000
apartment units, Ms. Lugo recommended that we have 5 neighborhood
coordinators. The coordinator is in charge of recruiting block
captains for each "block" in their neighborhood.

Block captains go door-to-door for each house on their block. They get
emergency contact information, an e-mail address, and the house number
for every home on their block. They are the only person who has all
the contact information for every resident.

Block captains ask residents to carry out a security survey of their
home. You can get a copy of this survey at:
http://www.ncpc.org/publications/brochures/home-safety

They also let residents borrow engravers to mark their belongings. She
mentioned that a 3 day check out time was perfect - any longer, and
people forgot to use it.

When you see an incident:

(1) Call the police (301-927-4343).
(2) Contact your block captain.
(3) The block captain will contact the affected resident so they can
get home as soon after the crime as possible.
(4) The block captain will then send an announcement to the
Neighborhood Watch e-mail list describing the incident. These e-mails
do not give resident names, or house numbers. For example, the report
would say something like "A resident of the 4700 block of Sheridan
Street reported that her passenger car door was pried open with a
crowbar in front of her house last night between 4 and 9 am. No
valuables were taken, though maps, and papers were flung about the
interior of the car."

Ms. Lugo said that she found that there were usually 3 types of people
she encountered when recruiting for the program: (1) excited, (2)
afraid, (3) angry ("Get off my property!") If the captain cannot
handle working with the resident, the best plan is to have the
neighborhood coordinator contact the difficult residents.

Ms. Lugo runs training for people interested in being coordinators and
block captains, and she will work with us to do this if that's what we
want.

She recommends having Neighborhood Watch meetings every 6 months, with
an awareness campaign centered on National Night Out (Tuesday, August
7, 2007, more information at:
http://www.nationalnightout.org/nno/about.html .)

Ms. Lugo mentioned the Citizen's Police Academy of PG County. You can
read more at: http://www.hyattsville.org/memoview.cfm?MemoID=421;
contact Ms. Lugo if you are interested in participating.

She also mentioned that you can do a ride-along with an on-duty police
officer. In this case, you can be with them for anywhere from 2 to 12
hours, and really get a feel for what our police do on a daily basis.
To do this, contact Lt. Adams to schedule a ride-along.

------ TIPS FOR PREVENTING CRIME -------

These tips were compiled based on the discussions of both Lt. Adams
and Ms. Lugo.

Make it difficult for burglars to get into your home.

- Don't leave things lying around in your yard that a thief can use to
get into your house. Put ladders and rakes back in the tool shed.
- Make sure the outside of your house is well-lit. Leave your front
porch light on all night.
- Trim shrubs and bushes so people driving by, and your neighbors can
see if someone is trying to get into your house.
- Don't leave any window broken.
- Make sure your doors are locked when you leave, and locked when you
are inside.
- Tell your children to open the door only if they have the permission
of their parent.
- If you are outside, lock the doors on the other side of the house so
burglars don't get in over there while you are monitoring another
door.
- Have an audible alarm that goes off when someone opens a door or
window without disarming.

Make it difficult for burglars to get into your car

- Lock your car doors and roll up the windows when you are getting gas.
- Don't leave your keys in the car! 30% of stolen cars have the keys in them!
- If someone tries to get into your car at a stoplight, run the light
to get away from them.
- Register your car with the "Watch Your Car" program. It is a
voluntary vehicle registration program designed to deter auto theft
and assist in the apprehension of auto thieves. Vehicle owners sign an
agreement stating their vehicle is not normally used between the hours
of 1:00am and 5:00am. If a police officer observes the vehicle being
driven anywhere in the United States during these hours, they may stop
the vehicle and verify the vehicle owner is operating it, or a person
designated by the owner. Read more at: http://www.mdautotheft.org/wyc/

Watch out for your neighbors.

- Talk to your neighbors. Get to know them. And keep your eyes out for them.
- Retired people are home during the day - ask them to watch out for
anything suspicious.
- Let your neighbors know when contractors are coming to work on  your house.
- Know the house numbers for the houses next to you, across the
street, and BEHIND you!
- Make sure your house numbers are at least 4 inches high - 5 inches
is even better. This will help the police or other emergency personnel
find your house in case of an emergency.
- If you see someone out of place, call the police at 301-927-4343;
they can come investigate whether the person has a legitimate reason
for being there. Don't feel bad about calling. Thieves almost always
scope out your house before they break in.

Know what is suspicious.

- Watch for suspicious behavior - anything out of the ordinary.
- Watch for strange vehicles.
- Watch for solicitors - it is not legal to solicit within our town boundaries.
- Criminals go to great lengths to blend in. They do things like
walking around with a clipboard, or sit in a car pretending to read a
map for hours on end, or walk around in a uniform they've stolen.
- Utility/meter readers can go on your property if you are not home,
but if you are home, you can ask to see their ID before letting them
in. If you are still suspicious, call the police before letting them
in. If they are legitimate, they have nothing to worry about.
- Write down all details about suspicious behavior. If it is
recurring, keep a journal.
- Buy binoculars to help you see tag numbers and other identifying details.

Know your surroundings

- Take a look all around (360 degrees) to make sure you know who/what is nearby.
- Walk with purpose.
- Look at people who are walking behind you.
- Make eye contact, or ask someone for the time if you think they may
be about to do something to you. This lets them know that you have
seen them, and can identify them to the police.
- Keep a police scanner in your home. (Kim Lugo likes the Uniden Bear
Cat best, but she warned that you won't know what channel to use
unless you participate in the Citizen's Police Academy.)

Make it difficult to find the valuables in your home

- Secure the valuables in your home - don't leave them lying around.
- Don't put  all the good stuff in one place - make it hard to gather
all your valuables together.

Extra precautions during vacations:

- Put your lights on timers so it looks like you are home, even when
you aren't.
- stop paper and mail delivery while you are gone.
- get rid of visual indicators that you aren't home (e.g., if your
blinds are always up, don't pull them down only when you are out of
town.)
- Call the police at 301-927-4343 and let them know when you will be
on vacation. They will take a report about who will be watching your
house while you are gone, and who has keys to your house. The police
will monitor your house more closely while you are gone.

If you see a crime:

- Get as much information as you can: (a) car tag number (partial
numbers don't help) and state where tag was issued, (b) full
description of the car's make, model, and color, and (c) a description
of person or persons involved, including tatoos, hair color, skin
color.
- Write these details in pen, on your hand if necessary.
- Call 301-927-4343 and make a report.
- All reports will be followed up on by the police. If they don't
follow up, contact Lt. Adams directly and report the problem.
- Don't worry about the criminal figuring out if you are reporting
them - there is no honor among criminals, and they will assume that
another criminal is moving in on their territory and trying to push
them out.


-- 
Sarah Wayland
Maryland - USA
sarah.wayland at gmail.com