Notes from the Neighborhood Watch (9/18/06)

We had a good meeting this past Monday. Officer Matt Montesano talked a bit about Chief Tuffey’s plans and some of the changes he’s seen within the department.

In the past, my main concern when I heard Chief Tuffey speak is that he only spoke about a reactive approach to crime instead of a proactive approach. During the most recent DANA meeting (which I could not attend), it’s my understanding that the chief did talk about some proactive community policing. Matt filled us in on the details.

[Matt: please jump in if I’ve gotten anything wrong] With the proposed closing of some stations, we should see an increased street presence. This doesn’t just mean more cars on the street. We should also see more officers walking the beat or on bike. I can’t recall the numbers, but the increase sounded substantial.

The chief is now requiring that officers do a certain number of “Property Checks” and “Person Checks.” These are community policing efforts that simply get the officer out of a car to talk to property owners and individuals. These checks are not supposed to have anything to do with a crime. They are for the purpose of encouraging the officers to learn some more about the citizens they are serving, and for the citizens to see the officers as part of their community. I think this will have a major influence on the communities.

A good portion of the meeting was spent talking about the volume of litter we see along Delaware Ave. This is a difficult issue to handle because it’s really a DGS issue and not a policing issue. At some point, we probably need to have a conversation with codes to see what we can do.

We also discussed the development of a “Welcome to the Neighborhood” packet that can be handed out to new neighbors and given to property owners to pass on to their tenants. The packet would contain info about the neighborhood watch, important phone numbers, trash pick up days, and maybe even a flyer advertising business in the neighborhood. If anyone is interested in helping put something like this together, let me know.

The next meeting is Monday, October 16th.