Northwood News ♦ June 2008

Recent Crime Spurs Interest in Starting a Neighborhood Watch

By Laura Hussey

The NFCCA is interested in finding out how many neighborhood residents would be interested in organizing a Neighborhood Watch.  If there is sufficient interest, an organizational meeting may be held this summer.  Read on for more details, and plan to attend the June NFCCA meeting to hear about crime trends and crime prevention tips.

If you participate in the NFCCA listserv, you know that recently there have been several burglaries and other property crimes in our neighborhood.  Some residents posted messages to the listserv wondering whether now would be a good time to consider organizing a Neighborhood Watch.

According to David Baker, Crime Prevention Specialist for the Montgomery County Police Department, this is a good time to be proactive about preventing crime.  Baker says the increase in crime not limited to our neighborhood or even to Silver Spring; instead, he says, “There are local, regional, and national demographic and economic cycles occurring right now [that] probably will continue for three to five more years that will cause crime rates to increase somewhat.”

The issue of crime is not a new issue, but concerns that crime seems to be trending upward were discussed at a recent NFCCA Board of Directors meeting.  Some NFCCA Board members recalled previous efforts to organize a Neighborhood Watch in the Northwood-Four Corners neighborhood.  According to NFCCA president Carole Barth, those efforts were unsuccessful for several reasons.  First, there was previously a threshold of 60 percent of households that needed to sign on to the effort before Montgomery County Police department would support the formal organization of a Neighborhood Watch.  MCPD has relaxed this requirement somewhat and is willing to work with NFCCA and the neighborhood to explore how we might participate more actively in crime prevention in our own neighborhood.

A second reason that previous efforts stalled was that no one in the neighborhood was willing to serve as the lead organizer.  At this time, there is a volunteer willing to serve in the capacity as lead organizer, but a successful effort will require participation from others in the neighborhood.  If you have an interest in exploring how a Neighborhood Watch might be organized in our neighborhood, please contact a member of the NFCCA Board.   ■