What a coincidence. Our small neighborhood is composed entirely of duplex units, 110 of them to be exact.
How do I know there are exactly 110? Because I've counted them to make sure each and every one of them gets a Neighborhood Watch meeting flyer every time we plan a meeting.
The folks in my neighborhood our mostly good people, but we have a couple of 'problem houses'. They're Section 8 housing and when we have issues with drug dealing, petty theft, gang graffiti, etc. they've always and I mean always been the source of the problems.
So we make sure they get notified of our meetings just like every body else.
Mrs. L and I have been running this NW for about 5 years now and it has made a dramatic difference in our area. We've managed to get about a dozen homes in the neighborhood to install those little CCTV cameras outside in places where they can watch the 'problem' homes.
They're a cheap and dirty solution to the problem of catching bad guys in the act. Oh the usual suspects have bitched and moaned about us 'invading their privacy' but local LEOs simply remind them that the streets aren't private.
We've also gotten pretty sophisticated with our NW patrols. Everyones got one of those little FRS/GMRS radios when they go out, video cams, and cell phones also. So any trouble and LE can be called and other NW patrols can converge post haste. Incidents can also be documented that way.
It doesn't take too long before the bad guys figure out that their lives will be easier elsewhere. So they move on to greener pastures if you know what I mean.
I highly recommend you look into setting one up in your neighborhood. I think you'll be suprised how many folks show up. We had over 70 people at our last meeting. Once the bad guys see that there are more of you than there are of them they tend to quiet down pretty quick.
We've simply refused to turn our neighborhood over to scum bags and gang bangers. By and large our local PD has been excellent to work with. There's only been one over muscled neanderthal jerk with a badge cop an attitude with us and he didn't last long with our Department.
Fortunately our Police Chief is a stand up guy and recognizes that the residents are an asset to be cultivated and not just a bunch of sheep needing to be guarded.
Like I said, look into setting one up in your area. I think you'll be pleasantly suprised at how much response you get.
Best of luck to you.
L
The single biggest problem we face are the uberlibs in our 'hood who do everything in their power to kibosh every proposal we make. We have one intersection which has been the root of most of our crime for as long as I've lived here. We wanted cameras at the corner; the libs, with the backing of the local media, raged that we were attempting to "profile" because the racial makeup of our 'hood is about 60/40, non-whites being the 60%. Funny thing is, all four properties at the problem crossing are owned by white folks, and they all wanted the cameras. For the past four years, we have been working our butts off trying to close access to the intersection from one critical direction--basically, we want to dead-end the street into a cul-de-sac. We tried it with temporary barricades for three months and the difference was remarkable. Arrests increased dramatically for the first few weeks and then incidents at the intersection stopped altogether. It was amazing. We got the city council behind us, all the planning boards, we got the police/fire departments to sign off on it, we got the money set aside in the budget to create the cul-de-sac. Out come the uberlibs. We're moving too fast, we haven't given this enough thought, we need more studies, we're going to balkanize the whole city...unbelievable. The folks who do the loudest yelling are the ones who head up to their Canadian cabins every weekend, who have never shown up at a neighborhood function, who hire illegals to tend their yards. Uberlibs. The slumlords are loving it.
/rant!