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City Hall175 East 200 NorthSt. George, UT 84770(435) 627-4000
| November 21, 2009 |
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Being Proactive Can Help Prevent Crimes I responded to a call one afternoon and met with an older lady who answered the door. "Oh, Officer, come in" she said as she pulled me by the hand into her kitchen. The dining room table had 4 chairs, two of which were turned toward the huge picture window that had quite a view of the surrounding businesses and homes. There were two pairs of binoculars on the window sill in front of the two chairs. "Look at that!" she exclaimed, as she pointed to a large semi-truck and trailer that completely filled the view of the window. "We bought this place so that we could mind other people's business. Now look!" and she pointed back at the trailer. I am reminded of a story that I heard once about the Whittlin' Whistlin' Brigade in the early days of the Mormon Church. They couldn't get help or relief from the government from the mobbers, who sent spies into the cities to "scope out" the town prior to going in and raiding them, so they set up this brigade: whenever someone suspicious came into town, young boys would "hang out" around the suspicious person and just whistle and whittle, following the person where ever he went in the town, thus making it impossible to for him to do his dirty work. Could this be the first signs of a Neighborhood Watch program? These two examples are exactly what we need to have: an interest in taking responsibility for the safety and way of life we so enjoy. Crime rates and violence rates are increasing in our area, as was pointed out in a recent article by Todd Seifert. And so is complacency, according to an article in Homeland First Response, by Natash Chin. She cites a survey by the Red Cross that found that "only 1 in 10 American families has a family emergency plan, a disaster kit and training in first aid and CPR, and further, that the numbers plummeted from last year." In this article, Eric Schultz, project director of USAonWatch indicated that it is common for Neighborhood Watch groups to materialize from sudden crimes in a neighborhood and then vanish after several crime-free months. "When a group gets started we want them to keep active," says Schultz. "As we move further away from 9/11 that job will become harder and harder." The same thing happened here. We had a very violent crime several years ago in one of our neighborhoods. The talk was that these suspects had been seen in the area up to several weeks before, but no one had reported them or their vehicle. They had to do something. Neighborhood Watch groups were formed with many of these people starting Mobile Watch groups and many hours were spent patrolling the streets. The desired goal was achieved: "No incidents to report", and the numbers eventually dropped off. We have a SWAT team, a Bomb Squad, a Haz-Mat team. We prepare for riots, large scale disturbances and many different disaster responses, all in the hopes that we never have to use them. How horrible it would be if one of these things occurred, and we had to call someone else to help us because we weren't prepared. We have learned that it is far easier to prepare for the future and prevent, rather than wait for the future and then react. We have our officers proactively patrolling rather than have them respond reactively from their homes when a call comes in. We have all these things available to help out if and when the need arises, but we can't do it without your eyes and ears. We need you to get the binoculars, sit out on the porch and watch and record what you see. We need you to be suspicious, to call in when there is something out of the ordinary happening with information that will help us. We need you to be diligent in your neighborhoods to take the precautions necessary to stop crime. If everyone were watching their neighbors, the word would spread and criminals would avoid those areas. They did in one neighborhood after the tragedy struck. Let's do it before the next tragedy strikes. Let's do it now. Craig Harding Public Information Officer St. George Police Department |
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