Sean C. Morgan
Sweet Home Neighborhood Watch programs will join the National Night Out Against Crime event from 6 to 9 p.m. on Aug. 7.
Three Neighborhood Watches will hold block parties, including the Nandina Street watch, which is one of the oldest in Sweet Home, and the Mimosa Circle watch, one of the newest groups. the third is the Foothills Drive, 27th Avenue and Fir Court watch.
“One of the things that is synonymous with these, that’s a night, on the seventh, that everybody leaves their lights on,” said Gina Riley, Community Services Officer with the Sweet Home Police Department.
The block parties will culminate in a walk through the neighborhoods with flashlights, Riley said. “Basically, what that’s for is just awareness again.”
Riley is encouraging other watch groups to do it as well, she said. “Get out there. Again, the theme is to take back the night, reclaim your neighborhood.”
Sweet Home has 14 Neighborhood Watch groups, Riley said. Of those, 11 are active, meeting at least quarterly or twice a year. Some meet more frequently.
The groups range in size from just four homes to the entire Strawberry Heights area.
Usually, their formation is spurred by something going on in the neighborhood, Riley said. The series of burglaries at the beginning of the year spurred the Foothills area Neighborhood Watch to get going again, regrouping, collecting phone numbers and residents meeting other residents.
The phone numbers are of key importance to Neighborhood Watch groups, Riley said. With phone trees in place, the Police Department can almost instantly communicate with everyone in a watch group, and it increases communication among members.
“It’s not just for people protecting their own homes,” Riley said. “All I have to do is call 17 people, and I’ve just alerted 600 people.”
They also get to know who lives nearby, Riley said. The groups should generally cover a neighborhood as far as the eye can see, she said.
During National Night Out, a portion of 13th Avenue, from the alley to Nandina Street, and the 4900 block of Mimosa Circle will be closed.