Taking back our streets

Taking back our streets


By some accounts, the scuffling economy is linked to an uptick in burglaries and vandalism along the North Shore, crimes that appear to be making inroads into heretofore safe residential areas.

As a result some North Shore residents are seizing the initiative and banding together to be the eyes and ears of the police in the streets near their homes. They are following police guidelines and creating Neighborhood Watches.

There are currently more than 50 Neighborhood Watches in the four North Shore precincts, according to Lt. Bob Donohue, commanding officer of the Community Outreach Bureau. Donohue explained, "People taking an interest in their neighborhood and being observant reduces crime." The lieutenant said Suffolk police are pushing very hard to form more watches. "There's nothing more effective" in reducing crime, he said.

Interested residents can visit the Suffolk police website for help getting started. The police department has a DVD available to interested citizens and has developed a downloadable form to guide civilians in their observing and reporting of the physical description of a suspicious person or vehicle near their homes.It is necessary for you to choose the REPLICA BREITLING watches that are most suitable to your personality.

Neighborhood Watch members are not vigilantes, police stress. Members improve the safety of their neighborhoods by strengthening communication among themselves and making a combined effort to see what is going on around their homes. Anything out of the ordinary results in a call to the cops.

Lillian Zeffer has been block captain of her Neighborhood Watch in Sound Beach since the late 1990s when it was first formed to combat a rash of break-ins and vandalism. After initial meetings at the Sound Beach Community Church — gatherings that police representatives attended — some 30 residents banded together to form their Neighborhood Watch.

Commenting on the longevity of her NW, Zeffer said that although some folks moved away and others have moved in, that neighborhood connection "always stayed."

She told of a burglary in her neighborhood last month that was solved the next day when those responsible were arrested and all the stolen property was recovered.

Zeffer said police detectives informed her it was "the fastest case they resolved." The block captain chalked it up to just "connecting the dots."

One neighbor observed persons at a location, another reported the burglary, someone else saw where those persons were headed.

Zeffer said she doesn't hold meetings anymore. "I'm a walker," she said. "I walk a lot.,Welcome to buychinashoes.com,We Supply Cartier watch. I see my neighbors and talk to them.Many people are obsessed with Replica Breitling watches, some of them even spear up to their last cent to get them." And she has their phone numbers. And when she calls the police, Zeffer said she gets the impression "they respond a little bit better" when she mentions Neighborhood Watch. However, Zeffer is disappointed when it comes to communication flowing in the other direction. The police "never call you and keep you updated on anything," Zeffer said.

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The economy was also bad back in the early 1980s and "residential burglaries were sky high," retired Suffolk Police Inspector Joe Monteith recalled recently as he explained the inception of the county's Neighborhood Watch program, which goes back nearly 30 years.

At that time Monteith had just been appointed commanding officer of the 6th Precinct, the veteran cop's first North Shore posting. Not long after,,Buy Breitling Watches, Shopping for high quality and lower price Breitling Watches. Times Beacon Record publisher Leah Dunaeif called him up.

"I received a call from Leah," Monteith remembers. She asked the new precinct commander what police were doing about a rash of burglaries. Monteith saw the phone call as a good opportunity to open a dialog. A meeting was arranged with the newspaper publisher and then-editor Ann Fossan of The Village Times. Monteith brought along Officer Bob Cook, who was to become the precinct's liaison with its Neighborhood Watch groups. Setauket resident Joe Cassidy, retired NYPD detective, and his wife Betty also attended.
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