The neighborhood watch for downtown and south Columbus held its first meeting Thursday at First United Methodist Church to discuss keeping the neighborhoods clean and safe.
The watch is being organized by Julie Parker, who worked with Rhonda Sanders, community relations officer with the Columbus Police Department, to organize the meeting. Parker recently attended a city council meeting asking about neighborhood watches and what it would take to keep the downtown area safe, following an armed robbery and an alleged assault that occurred near the Riverwalk within days of each other.
Between 20 and 30 Columbus residents attended Thursday’s meeting, as well as Mayor Robert Smith, who was there to show to support. CPD representatives explained what people need to be on the look out for to keep their neighborhoods safe. After each representative finished speaking, residents asked questions.
Sanders began the meeting by telling residents what they would need to do to get a thriving neighborhood watch going in the area. She explained how the neighborhood will be split into areas every six blocks or so and how each area will get a block captain who will report on suspicious activity to the police department.
Sanders also explained how to look for suspicious activity. She said to be aware of who lives in the neighborhood, what cars are parked where and what is common for the area. Only by knowing that will residents be able to pick out what is suspicious.
Interim Police Chief Fred Shelton and Columbus Investigative Division Capt. Brent Swan also spoke to the residents. telling them what to watch out for in the neighborhood and offering tips on how to cut down on crime. Shelton suggested the residents ensure their street and property is well lit and their shrubberies short so that criminals have fewer places in the area to hide. He suggested residents install deadbolt locks to make it more difficult for burglaries to occur.
Shelton also told residents to not make it obvious to criminals what expensive or valuable things are in their homes. He said to not leave TV or computer boxes by the trashcan on the street because it will advertise to criminals that there are new electronics in the house. He also warned people not to leave valuables by windows because those lead to what are known as “smash and grabs” — criminals see a valuable item through the window, smash the window, grab the item and leave without ever having set foot in the house.
After Shelton’s presentation, Swan spoke about criminal investigations. Part of what makes the job of arresting criminals who commit felonies difficult, he said, is not getting the cooperation from people around who may know something about the crime.
“Every one of us as humans has a little bell in our heads that goes off when something don’t seem right,” Swan said. “The funny thing about us as humans is we will come up with every situation we can to make that make sense to us although it just seems abnormal.”
He urged residents to let law enforcement know when they see or hear something suspicious and that alarm bell goes off in their heads.
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