Dear
Friends and Neighbors,
We
will be having a Smoky Row Road Block Watch meeting on Tuesday, February 12th, 2013
at 7:00 pm in the meeting room at the Northwest Library at 2280 Hard Rd.,
Columbus, Ohio 43235. Officer Carl
Johnson, our Community Liaison from the Columbus Police Department, will be
speaking at the meeting. This will be
our 3rd meeting after which we will be considered an official Block
Watch that will be recognized by the City of Columbus. After this meeting the City will order signs that
will be posted in our Neighborhood to warn criminals that we are watching!
Here
are my top 5 reasons you should participate in our Community’s Block Watch:
1. Safety and Security: There is no feeling that you can experience that can quite compare to receiving a telephone call from your panicked teenager who has just walked into your burglarized home alone! I was lucky (well as lucky as anyone can be in this situation) that when my son returned home from his football game to find our back door kicked in that the burglars were long gone. If you search the internet right now there are stories nearly every day of children being home alone when a burglar rings the door bell. We teach our kids never to open the door for a stranger yet when burglars ring the bell and no one answers they take that as a green light to come on in and start helping themselves to your personal property. My child is 13 which is old enough to stay home for a few hours alone until I get home from work. He has never felt unsafe or uneasy in staying alone for short periods of time. I am sure many of you reading this article also have children that must at times be home alone for whatever reason. The second some low-life thug makes the decision to invade your home and vandalize and burglarize your personal sanctuary you will never be the same! Installing simple motion detectors and signs warning burglars of your home security is a great place to start to make your home a safer place to live. Discussing how to react in the face of imminent danger of a burglar with your children is another critical step in maintaining safety and security. The next logical step is to participate in your neighborhood Block Watch! Your level of participation is completely up to you! There are many essentials positions that need to be filled in a Block Watch group. The largest group is that of observers! BE AWARE! That is an easy job that we all can do! GET INVOLVED!!! MAKE YOUR COMMUNITY BETTER! If you would feel you would like a more crucial role I am sure the Block Watch organizer (in this instance that would be me:) would welcome and appreciate the help!
2. Lower the Crime Rate in your Neighborhood: There have been many studies in the United States and in the United Kingdom concerning the effectiveness of Community Block Watches. According to the Crime Prevention Research Review No. 3: Does Neighborhood Watch Reduce Crime, "Nearly all studies found that Neighborhood Watch areas were associated with lower levels of crime." Decreasing crime rates in our neighborhoods can have a rippling positive effect.
3. Lower Homeowner's Insurance Premiums: Lower crime rates are good for our sense of safety and security in our own homes but when crime rates go down so do our homeowner's insurance premiums. Who couldn't use more money in our pockets instead of allowing petty criminals not only steal things that we have worked hard for but in turn cause us to end up paying higher premiums on our homeowner's insurance!
4. Increase Property Value: Lower crime rates not only mean lower insurance premiums but by lowering crime we can increase our property values! Let's face it, who wants to live in a high-crime area?
5. Increase Your Family's Sense of Pride in Community: We do not live in the 1950s anymore and I know I am guilty of not really knowing my neighbors and/or participating in community activities! What a great way to come together and get to know one another and keep each other's back safe! By participating in the Block Watch you will teach your children and your grand-children the value of getting involved and standing up for what is right!
I cannot stress enough how important it is that we have every single community member involved to make our neighborhood a safer place to live! Won't you please join our cause today? If you would like to help please with the block watch please email me at powellblockwatch@aol.com.
1. Safety and Security: There is no feeling that you can experience that can quite compare to receiving a telephone call from your panicked teenager who has just walked into your burglarized home alone! I was lucky (well as lucky as anyone can be in this situation) that when my son returned home from his football game to find our back door kicked in that the burglars were long gone. If you search the internet right now there are stories nearly every day of children being home alone when a burglar rings the door bell. We teach our kids never to open the door for a stranger yet when burglars ring the bell and no one answers they take that as a green light to come on in and start helping themselves to your personal property. My child is 13 which is old enough to stay home for a few hours alone until I get home from work. He has never felt unsafe or uneasy in staying alone for short periods of time. I am sure many of you reading this article also have children that must at times be home alone for whatever reason. The second some low-life thug makes the decision to invade your home and vandalize and burglarize your personal sanctuary you will never be the same! Installing simple motion detectors and signs warning burglars of your home security is a great place to start to make your home a safer place to live. Discussing how to react in the face of imminent danger of a burglar with your children is another critical step in maintaining safety and security. The next logical step is to participate in your neighborhood Block Watch! Your level of participation is completely up to you! There are many essentials positions that need to be filled in a Block Watch group. The largest group is that of observers! BE AWARE! That is an easy job that we all can do! GET INVOLVED!!! MAKE YOUR COMMUNITY BETTER! If you would feel you would like a more crucial role I am sure the Block Watch organizer (in this instance that would be me:) would welcome and appreciate the help!
2. Lower the Crime Rate in your Neighborhood: There have been many studies in the United States and in the United Kingdom concerning the effectiveness of Community Block Watches. According to the Crime Prevention Research Review No. 3: Does Neighborhood Watch Reduce Crime, "Nearly all studies found that Neighborhood Watch areas were associated with lower levels of crime." Decreasing crime rates in our neighborhoods can have a rippling positive effect.
3. Lower Homeowner's Insurance Premiums: Lower crime rates are good for our sense of safety and security in our own homes but when crime rates go down so do our homeowner's insurance premiums. Who couldn't use more money in our pockets instead of allowing petty criminals not only steal things that we have worked hard for but in turn cause us to end up paying higher premiums on our homeowner's insurance!
4. Increase Property Value: Lower crime rates not only mean lower insurance premiums but by lowering crime we can increase our property values! Let's face it, who wants to live in a high-crime area?
5. Increase Your Family's Sense of Pride in Community: We do not live in the 1950s anymore and I know I am guilty of not really knowing my neighbors and/or participating in community activities! What a great way to come together and get to know one another and keep each other's back safe! By participating in the Block Watch you will teach your children and your grand-children the value of getting involved and standing up for what is right!
I cannot stress enough how important it is that we have every single community member involved to make our neighborhood a safer place to live! Won't you please join our cause today? If you would like to help please with the block watch please email me at powellblockwatch@aol.com.
NEIGHBORHOOD EMERGENCY ALERT SYSTEM INFORMATION:
A few weeks ago a 3-year old child went missing in our neighborhood and I was contacted by one of our Block Watch members to see if we had any way of alerting our members of this critical situation. I was not home and did not have access to the telephone numbers that I have for our members. Fortunately the child was found unharmed fairly quickly. Although this was an isolated episode and was resolved without incident, the situation did present the need for an emergency alert system in our area. I am thinking that a text message would be the best way to reach everyone the quickest.
The 1st sign-up sheet that I created on line for the 1stBlock Watch meeting can be accessed by everyone. Here is the link to that document https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AuvuWkUWcxtfdDg4bURUUlNZTXJkcUYwQ0dsTHhHTVE#gid=0. I added a column to this sheet where you can indicate whether or not you wish to be contacted via email in the event of an emergency. If your name is already on the list please edit the information as necessary. If you would like to sign up please sign up on the link above or email me. If you wish to be contacted but do not receive texts, please indicate that you would like to receive a telephone call instead. If you do not wish for your information to be public please remove your name from the list. A lot of our neighbors are not participating in the Block Watch meetings but may wish to be included in the Emergency Alert System. Please feel free to share the link with your neighbors in case they would like to receive these texts. In the event that you are having trouble adding your name please email me your information and I will be happy to add your name to the list for you!
If anyone has an emergency situation that arises such as the child that went missing (I think he had just wandered out of his yard but having a child missing for even a few minutes can be a terrifying experience) please text me with the details so that I can forward the message to those on the text messaging list! Also if anyone is interested in helping out with the emergency alert system in case I am not available please email me!
Thank you for getting involved to help make our community a safer place to live!
Light Up Your
Block!
Help
combat the crime in our neighborhood today
Turn your
outdoor lights on each night
What else you
can do:
Be on the look out in our neighborhood
Call police (614.645.4545) for
suspicious behavior
Join the block watch
Questions,
comments or concerns?
Please
contact the block watch at powellblockwatch@aol.com
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