Stronger together — Neighborhood Watch March 24
BY KADIE TAYLOR
THE LAFAYETTE SUN
LAFAYETTE — There will be a city of LaFayette Neighborhood Watch Meeting on Tuesday, March 24, at the Venue, led by Council Member Charlene Story in collaboration with the LaFayette Police Department.
Story said the idea for a Neighborhood Watch came from a call she received from a constituent regarding a faded “Neighborhood Watch” sign. Respond- ing to the need of her constituent, Story said she called the LaFayette Chief of Police, Christopher Trice, as she went through the process to replace the sign and asked him if there was an active Neighborhood Watch. Story said Trice replied that while there was one in the past, having an active group would be great.
“I asked him, ‘Could I take the lead on it?’ And he was like, ‘Yeah.’ And he said, ‘However, me and my department can support you in taking a lead on the neighborhood watch, then that’ll be great,’” she said. “We are currently bless- ed that we don’t have a high crime rate in the city of LaFayette, and this Neighbor- hood Watch is not going to be reacting to any crimes; it’s going to be more about prevention. Because right now we don’t have a high crime rate, and I don’t fore- see us having a higher crime rate, but this Neighborhood Watch would probably start strengthening relationships between the police officers in the community. It’s going to increase awareness, and I feel like we’re going to be proactive versus reactive when it comes to when we do have crimes. The main purpose of my taking the lead on this was to have goals that we communicate to our citizens, bring awareness and bring unity.”
While many neighbors already watch out for each other, Story said a Neighborhood Watch would create a space for more community collaboration and the sharing of information for those living in LaFayette. At the first meeting, Story said she hopes community communication will help her create a Neighborhood Watch system that responds to the community’s feedback.
“Most neighbors do look out for each other, and they already share information amongst each other. So why not give them a space where they can come [and expand on that]?” she said. “It may be every quarter that the community will meet for a Neighborhood Watch Meeting, where they can share any information that they want to share with other people in the group. Or it may look like we create a Neighborhood Watch Facebook page. I am not exactly sure how the ends and outs are going to be, but I feel like this first meeting is going to help us establish a community involvement to prevent crimes from happening in LaFayette... At that first meeting, hopefully we can set some groundwork and have some people who are going to be really involved, and maybe we establish some team captains and get the ball rolling on forming a Neighborhood Watch.”
With the help of the city of LaFayette Police Department and hopes of collaboration with the other city council members, Story said she wants the Neighborhood Watch to be a place for people to share their knowledge on safety with their community, and she said she looks forward to the community attending the first meeting. “If you have the police involved, and you have someone from the city council involved, people will be more receptive to coming out and voicing their concerns or voicing ways how we can prevent crimes from happening in LaFayette,” she said. “Chief Trice did state that he or someone from his de- partment would be at every meeting, they will get up and they will speak about how to prevent crime, how to report crime and we’re going to have a whole agenda at the meeting... My hope and prayer is that once we kick off this first meeting, I hope to have other city council members come out and speak on different topics that they would like to speak about at the Neighborhood Watch Meeting. In the meantime, before the meeting even takes place, I am reaching out to different cities to see if they currently have a neighborhood watch in their city or somewhere in their community, and getting some information from them.”
