Longview Hills @ Newport Oregon

How the Neighborhood Watch Broke Down Yesterday.....

Folks,

Because the following has a lot of Key Stone Kops in it, I hope we can all benefit from it. First, this story is told third hand and so it cannot be accurate but it is not a work of fiction either. It is rather an inaccurate report with a lot of lessons for everyone. The lessons make it valuable.

Marlene Crites called and reported this story to me. The story was told to her by Barbara Parks who witnessed it as we are told. So you see, already it is third hand. Here goes as I recall it....

Yesterday, or probably I should say Once upon a time? Two African American males came into the park driving a white car and began knocking on doors in the vicinity of the Parks' home and were selling insurance. When asked, they produced a temporary license issued by the city that was unreadable. They told folks they were there because they had responded to email that they wanted a salesman to talk to them. This was reported as bogus. They were observed going to 4 homes.. There is more but let's stop here and analyze what has gone on here and what happened and what should have happened.

At the front (main gate) there is a sign that says "No Soliciting". Every resident should be aware of that. A call to the Park Manager should have had him taking the action of confronting the two.

Each of the 4 people that they spoke to knew that they had not made a request for a salesman about insurance. Neighborhood Watch did not receive a heads up until the next day. Why? Here comes another breakdown... The Parks' say they turned their radio on and called on CH 6 and nobody answered. Well, there is 24/7 monitoring most of the time by volunteers (thank you those folks for your selflessness). Why did she not get an answer???? Those who have read the clubhouse door and the clubhouse bulletin board saw posters that were up for more than a month explaining why... Those that read this website have had an explanation and at the top of the web page is the correct channel to tune to. If folks read the newsletter there was an article in there explaining that the correct channel to tune to is channel 6.16 not Ch 6... We won't go into the long litany of why this was done because it has been said over and over. Suffice it to say that those who have a radio with CH 6 only can only listen to Neighborhood Watch transmissions but cannot transmit to CH 6.16..... During an emergency the CERT team will monitor both CH 6 and Ch 6.16 and then you can transmit on ch6 and be heard. In this case a block captain should have been called, the park manager should have been called and maybe the police business phone to report a suspicious circumstance.

If the Block Captain had been called they would have radioed the neighborhood with an announcement and probably all of the above would have happened and in addition maybe a neighborhood watch patrol volunteer would have gone for a look see and got a description of the car and people and a license plate number... Later they would file a report on the Newport Police Website whereupon the police would have entered it into their patrol log. So the system broke due to a failure to communicate.

Later, not during, the Parks' told Larry Henson about the problem but my sense of the report is that the salesman were already gone. Larry took no action and remarked that the Neighborhood Watch system didn't work. He did not do anything according to the Parks'. He was right.. the system did not work.

The system is only as good as its weakest link. Until we all understand how to use the system it will break down. This is a wake up call for all of us. 5 residents had a chance to initiate the system... Nothing happened. We have volunteers that take the security, your security, of the community very seriously. We ask that you honor their diligence and commitment by learning the Neighborhood Watch Radio system. Don't be a weak link. Be strong! You can do it! We are here for you.

Every CERT team member is a FRS radio expert and will help anybody that asks a question... Use their expertise.