FELLSMERE — For as long as Sgt. Carlos Acevedo can remember, there have been signs saying there was a Crime Watch in Fellsmere, but that’s about where the effort stopped.
There were only signs – no participants, no meetings, no email blasts alerting residents to problems, and no phone calls. Nothing.
At one time, Crime Watch signs were on every other corner or so. Now, just a few stragglers are left some 20 years after they were first installed.
But all that’s about to change. The old signs will be replaced with new ones announcing a new initiative to blunt crime, this one called Neighborhood Watch.
Crime Watch, Town Watch, Block Watch and Neighborhood Watch all collectively mean the residents, just like police, are keeping a keen eye out for illegal activity.
This time around, there will be participants, meetings, e-mail blasts alerting residents to problems, and perhaps even phone calls.
About 30 community members last week joined Acevedo, who’s been on the force for 18 years, Chief Keith Touchberry and other law enforcement officers when they gathered to build support for a real Neighborhood Watch group.
Key from here on out will be community participation.
The next meeting is scheduled for Dec. 5 at 7 p.m. in the Old Fellsmere School.
At the inaugural meeting, Touchberry shared a story known in police circles as the “broken window story” when he explained why people need to embrace participation in Neighborhood Watch, a community-based program that encourages others to look out for each other and establish a close working relationship with the police.
“Once upon a time there was an old warehouse,” begins the Broken Window Story. “And then some kids broke a window. And pretty soon there were many broken windows. And because no one fixed the windows, graffiti showed up.”
The story continues to explain that next came illegal dumping and ultimately other crimes like prostitution, drug sales as well as gang violence that permeated the old warehouse – all because nobody cared.
In an effort to curb even the first broken window in the small city, Touchberry and other officers hope that the number of people who care about Fellsmere will out-number those who’d rather damage a window or commit more serious crimes.
“That is key,” said Touchberry.
A study by the U.S. Department of Justice Community Oriented Policing Office found that Neighborhood Watch programs reduce crime.
The programs also help residents get to know one another, thus building a stronger sense of community and pride. Neighborhood Watch programs also provide a direct contact to police.
Intentionally avoiding the name of George Zimmerman, now perhaps the country’s most infamous Neighborhood Watch participant, Touchberry explained that Neighborhood Watch is not taking the law into one’s own hands, going on active patrols and detaining people.
In neighboring Vero Beach, about 600 people are involved in the traditional Neighborhood Watch program, and several thousand people signed up for a free internet-based community crime alert system called Uneighbors – run out of Melbourne.
“Without question it works,” said Vero Beach Police Chief David Currey of Vero’s Neighborhood Watch programs.
Like Touchberry, Currey, stressed that participation is key to success.
Touchberry said for the time being the new Neighborhood Watch group with meet monthly with the hope of attracting more people.
From there, block captains will be named to take the program over.
About four different Neighborhood Watch areas will be established in the city. Block captains will have direct ties to police and work with them to keep the community engaged.
Touchberry, who was active in the creation of some of Vero Beach’s various Neighborhood Watch programs, said even before he officially started as chief of police in Fellsmere, he knew he wanted to get a program there.
Councilwoman Sarah Savage approached Touchberry shortly after he took over the chief’s job and asked if he would be interested in forming a program.
“I told her absolutely,” he said.
Touchberry hopes that after a few months the various Neighborhood Watch programs will run themselves.
“They are designed to run themselves with the block captain keeping everyone in the loop.”
For now the group will meet as a whole and discuss what it can do to curb and prevent crime with police help.
Property crime is the leading crime in Fellsmere, a city of 5,300 people.
According to statistics provided to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting database, there were 105 reported property crimes last year, up from 69 crimes reported in 2011.
Theft also has been on the rise; last year 71 cases were reported to police, up from 40 the year before.
Violent crime has stayed relatively stable over the past three years. Last year 11 cases were reported to the police, up just one from 2011; and in 2010 there were 13 violent crimes. There have not been any homicides or rapes reported over the last three years.
Aggravated assaults have also remained stable over the last three years.
Last year there were seven cases; in 2010 and 2011 there were eight cases.
What has decreased significantly over the past three years is car theft.
In 2010, 16 cars were stolen. In 2011, four cars were stolen, but last year just one.
Touchberry hopes that with neighbors looking out for one another and being the added set of ears and eyes for the police other crimes in Fellsmere will take a nosedive as well.
“The key will be for the good people to outnumber the bad people,” Touchberry said.
