Arden_neighbourhood_watch

Jeff Green | Dec 01, 2005

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Arden starts a Neighbourhood Watch

On Monday night, OPP Constable Paige Whiting attended a meeting in Arden to help residents start a Neighbourhood Watch program. Constable Whiting told residents that the program is “not rocket science; basically it’s neighbours watching out for neighbours.” She urged people to call police about any suspicious activity, and gave examples to illustrate the point. In one story, a man watched a thief carry goods out of his brother’s house but did not call police because he thought he recognised the man. In another incident more than 50 mailboxes were damaged in one night, but although over 60% of the people heard or saw something, police received only two calls. Thanks to those calls they were able to catch the perpetrators, but Constable Whiting thinks police could have prevented some of the damage if they had been called earlier.The meeting was called partly in response to community concerns about a dangerous sexual offender who has moved into the Arden area, and Constable Whiting compared Ontario’s policy on releasing the names of sexual offenders to the public with Texas’ policy. She said that in Texas the name of a sexual offender is released every single time they move, but the result has been to drive sexual offenders underground. In Texas, there is 90% non-compliance. Whiting said she could not imagine what police there go through to cope with the situation.By contrast, in Ontario where only the names of dangerous sexual offenders are made public, there is 90% compliance.

Constable Whiting’s presentation also dealt with securing property and Operation Identification. She said that 90% of break-ins occur during the daytime, and strongly recommended that people engrave their property with their drivers’ licence numbers and also keep an inventory of items.