Neighborhood Watch

editorial ron thomas
Ideas

What to do about Neighborhood Watch in our community?

The trouble with Neighborhood Watch is it is a phone tree type of system designed for a neighborhood of 8 to 10 homes... We have 180 homes... Various Neighborhood watch volunteers have proven time and again that a phone tree system will not work here.. There are just to many homes to call... Try to break up the calls into groups does not work because some of the callers will not be home. Calling some people is a hazard in itself as they will continue to talk on for hours tying up a critical phone line.
Having one person call the problem out and then call an all clear will take up to 6 hours (FACT).

Radios? Have somebody monitor FRS radios 24/7 ? Do you have that kind of dedication? Although there are some trying to do this now it really can't be done full time..

People leave the park.. They go to sleep.. Their radio batteries discharge... a myriad of problems show up.

Most of our people do not feel this an overwhelming issue big enough to volunteer their time yet it would be great if we had a system that would warn us of outages, people sneaking around, and generally keeping us informed.

That is the challenge to make an early warning system that works 24/7 that will contact everyone within minutes and not be volunteer time intensive. A solution does exist. Here is the problem will you pay for it? If you won't volunteer your time will you volunteer you money?

What is it and how much?

Cost between $300 and $1200 a year...(based on some internet research I've been doing)

There are services that are both computer based and phone based. Here is a generalization of the way they work.

They have telephone lines in large numbers and computer software that combine to make a system of notification that would work here at LVH like this example...

We or LVH management buy the service. We give the password to Larry Henson and 5 other community members who are neighborhood watch block captains and the Neighborhood Watch Coordinator. A notice comes up... say it is delivered to Larry Henson as park manager from public works.

This notice says that the water will be off throughout the park tomorrow. Larry goes to his phone or computer and does this... If by phone he calls a special # and enters his PIN. The automated service then walks him through the message he wants to send and when he wants to send it. Then he hangs up and it is done... Within 15 minutes everyone in the park has been called and notified with that exact message. It does not stop there.. During calling their computer knows to wait for answering machines to finish their messages and then leave its own message... If their computer gets a no answer it keeps remaking the call until the time specified by Larry to stop. While this is all happening Larry and the 5 other residents can watch a real time generated report that show who has been notified and who has not as it is happening. 15 minutes! You don't have to volunteer! You know what's happening!

You can preprogram messages so that you could say send message #3 now. It might say during a wind storm for you to tune into CH 6 or CH 6.16 and listen for update from the CERT team or request their help...

The Neighborhood watch block Captains could call the coordinator about suspicious activity and a message could be sent throughout the neighborhood ... all 180 homes to watch out for the problem.

This is how the system works... It needs to be fed money $$$, in order to work.

Consider, in the 10+ years we have lived here Neighborhood Watch has been wishy washy at best because it is to volunteer time intensive. Finding volunteers is difficult and then the enormity of the task and lack of caring among residents usually results in people resigning. This is a way to revitalize our system, give it teeth and it could be a great selling point for the park... as a really class security system designed for a Senior living community.

Most of the time I take on these tasks and it takes forever to accomplish. Like you, I'm aging and that takes its toll on my energy reserves and I am not truly up to doing this thing alone. I'm willing to do what I can but some of you community leaders that can see the value of establishing this program are going to have to come forward now and roll up your sleeves. We need a steering committee to put together a plan.

Yesterday, Jacky and I talked to Matt and Debbie Matheney, the newest folks in the park, about being the Neighborhood Watch Coordinators. We spoke for about
2 1/2 hours about the evolution of Neighborhood Watch in the park and about the idea you have read above. They have agreed to take on the Coordinator job and Matt will start by coming to Monday's CERT meeting so he can begin to get an understanding of how CERT hopes to intertwine with Neighborhood Watch.

Send me an email or catch me at the clubhouse or call me and let me know if you are willing to serve on this steering committee.