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Police offer tips to help block watch
Photo
Chief Jimmy Hughes.
BLOCK WATCH SAFETY
Community tips
Law enforcement officials say there are a number of things homeowners can do to help police prevent crime in the community. Here’s a short list.
Make use of lights and sound: Find a motion detector or a good timer to make lights come on or sound in the house whenever someone is near.
Make friends with neighbors: Become acquainted with neighbors who will watch your property while you are not home and do the same for them.
Get an alarm: Investing in an alarm is better than replacing stolen items at a later date.
Document your possessions: Marking items in the home makes it more difficult to sell stolen items.
Minimize bushes: High bushes can be a good hiding place for would-be thieves. Keep them trimmed.
Source: Lt. Mike Fonda, Mahoning County Sheriff’s Department
YOUNGSTOWN
Members of the Buckeye Eyes and Ears Block Watch just witnessed one of its members help police apprehend three armed teens, and now law enforcement is offering tips to its members — and other homeowners — on ways to prevent crime.
It was Thanksgiving Day when a member of the block watch along Loveland Avenue on the city’s South Side noticed a suspicious group of teens surrounding a man and his fiancee. The block-watch member quickly learned the teens had pulled a gun, threatened to “pop” the man and then tried to rob the couple.
Police say the block-watch member tracked the boys around the neighborhood for 10 minutes before police arrived and made the arrests.
Lt. Mike Fonda of the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Department said that anytime the block watch can act as the eyes and eyes for law enforcement, it gives police an added edge and curbs crime in the community. He spoke Tuesday with members of the block watch about more ways to curb crime in the neighborhood.
“It becomes alarming when you see people just walking down the sidewalk, and someone pulls out a gun and says, ‘Pop them.’ That is alarming,” he said. “If people turn their heads and do nothing, it escalates. The real people who can stop this is the proactive neighborhood block watch.”
Bob Wilson, block-watch president, said he is happy to see the block watch and neighborhood in general get more attention from law enforcement, but he would like to see more of a constant presence in the neighborhood by law enforcement. He said police presence is often reactionary instead of proactive.
Wilson said a big problem in the area is with juveniles. He said older people often are intimidated by groups of teens who walk in the street and refuse to move for cars or other pedestrians.
Fonda said a good way to get a handle on teen issues is to have officers out of the patrol cars working directly with block-watch members and taking complaints from those in the community.
He said people are more likely to voice their concerns and offer useful bits of information to an officer working within the community instead of calling the police department.
Youngstown Police Chief Jimmy Hughes said the police department has officers assigned to work directly with the block watches and various neighborhood groups.
“They are out of the cars, and they are working with the block watches. ... They connect the rest of the department with issues going on with the block watches,” Hughes said. “I believe this makes a difference.”
Fonda said it is important for block watches to emphasize the added things homeowners can do to assist officers in preventing crime.
Fonda said making use of sound and light via motion detectors and timers in the home is a good first step to discouraging any would-be thieves. He said it also is important to make friends with neighbors who will notice the lights and sounds when no one is home.
Fonda added homeowners should minimize any high bushes around their home and invest in an alarm system. He said documenting or marking possessions so that they are harder to steal and sell also is helpful to law enforcement.