Neighbors keep an eye out

The woman who walked into the COPS Northeast shop last week had had enough.

She was sure there was a drug house in her neighborhood, and she wanted something done about it.

“Do you have Block Watch in your neighborhood?” asked Dorothy Jilbert, 78, a volunteer at the COPS shop and a longtime Block Watch representative.

The woman filled out a communication form – the COPS version of a police report – and Jilbert supplied the woman with information about what to do.

“You need to write it down,” Jilbert told the woman. Documenting license plate numbers, what time people stop by the suspicious house and descriptions of the visitors are helpful tools in investigating a drug house.

“You need to get the neighbors involved,” Jilbert told her. Groups of neighbors making the same complaints about a house can get the attention of police, who are stretched thin both financially and in numbers.

Knowing important details about your neighbors is the key element of Block Watch, which has the motto “Neighbor-to-Neighbor.”

Established in 1978, Block Watch has become a staple in neighborhoods throughout the Spokane area to help prevent crime. Stickers adorn living-room windows. Reflective signs flash at nighttime drivers from the poles of street signs to alert everyone that neighbors are looking out for one another.

“Any type of sign that denotes crime prevention is a deterrent,” said Maurece Vulcano, program coordinator for Spokane COPS, which has overseen the Block Watch program since 2000.

Block Watch signs help with crime prevention, as do signs for security and alarm companies, whether or not the resident of the home subscribes to those companies, Vulcano said.

But the signs are just a small part in organizing a safer neighborhood.

“Everybody should know who belongs to the neighborhood,” Vulcano said.

She emphasized that being involved in Block Watch doesn’t necessarily mean that neighbors have license to freely spy on one another.

The program is all about knowing what kind of cars neighbors drive, when they are on vacation, what their work schedules are – not out of nosiness but to recognize when something or someone is out of place.

In 2006, there were 580 Block Watch representatives registered through Spokane COPS.

Once in Vulcano’s neighborhood, a woman noticed two strange men at the front door of her neighbor’s house. The men then went into the backyard.

When they went back to the front of the house and started fiddling with the door knob, the woman called 911.

It turned out to be nothing. One of the two men was the son of the homeowner who had come to visit.

“It could have been something,” Vulcano said.

Another incident in her neighborhood led to the breakup of a gang of vehicle prowlers. When the neighbors started hearing strange noises from the street in the early hours of the morning, they all called one another to see if they were OK and they called 911.

Crime prevention is the main goal. Members know whom to call about graffiti or abandoned vehicles. They know they need to document activity around suspected drug houses and whom to give that information to in order to drive away drug dealers.

There are seven neighborhood resource officers in the Spokane area. They act as liaisons between the neighborhoods and the Police Department through the local COPS shops.

Senior police officer Dan Waters serves as neighborhood resource officer at COPS Northeast.

He said he reads the communication forms that are filled out by citizens in the area and looks into what can be done.

Not only can neighborhood resource officers inform the Police Department about trouble spots in the neighborhoods, but they also have knowledge and educational resources for the residents.

“What really gets people is the drug houses,” Waters said. When a drug house moves into the neighborhood, crime in general goes up, whether it is because of increased garbage on the streets, vandalism, increased traffic, violence or abandoned vehicles.

Vulcano said neighborhoods with an active Block Watch see 20 percent to 25 percent less crime.

Starting your own Block Watch is fairly easy. Anyone interested can get an application from the local COPS shop.

Applicants supply their name, address and Social Security number and the names of other members of their household who are 18 and older.

The COPS shop will perform a background check to confirm that the applicants are law-abiding citizens.

Once the application is approved, the new representatives can go door-to-door, meeting their neighbors and getting phone numbers to start a phone tree.

After that, being in a Block Watch is mostly about maintaining relationships among neighbors.

One way to do that is the National Night Out Against Crime.

Every year on the first Tuesday in August, neighbors gather for a picnic, a barbecue or an ice cream social in a local park or in a neighbor’s yard. Parties that are registered through the COPS shop can expect visits from local law enforcement, the Fire Department, McGruff the Crime Dog and more – all of whom will provide information about keeping their neighborhoods safe.

Vulcano said neighbors don’t have to have an active Block Watch to participate, but the event is always a good excuse to get Block Watch started in a neighborhood.

Dorothy Jilbert and her sister-in-law, Donna Jilbert, 73, have been involved with their local COPS shop for 14 years. Donna is the Block Watch coordinator for COPS Northeast.

She routinely mails newsletters to the local representatives and keeps track of any that are returned to her. Then she’ll check the list of members in the neighborhood to find a replacement representative.

Dorothy Jilbert became a Block Watch representative because she lives near Rogers High School. She said some of the students have been known to loiter in neighborhood yards. Some kids skateboard in neighbors’ driveways and leave behind garbage and cigarette butts.

She and Donna are now on a campaign to get the Spokane school district to do away with the open campus policy.

When someone new moves into her neighborhood, Dorothy will introduce herself as soon as possible.

This helps the Block Watch program in a couple of ways.

First, it welcomes newcomers to the neighborhood, and she can get their phone number to add to the phone tree.

Second, it lets the newcomers know that neighbors are looking out for one another and looking out for trouble.

“We have a good Block Watch,” Dorothy Jilbert said. “We all call each other.”

She said many newcomers to her neighborhood are taken aback when they first meet her.

“You’d be surprised,” she said about people who move from other neighborhoods. “Nobody knows their neighbors.”

It’s at the representative’s discretion whether to share the phone list with any neighbor. If the representative is suspicious that the neighbors might be trouble, the neighbor won’t get a phone list.

Dorothy said she is surprised at the number of people she meets who are afraid to get involved with Block Watch.

“They’re afraid of retaliation,” she said.

But the Jilberts firmly believe there is safety in numbers. There also is strength in knowledge.

“We try to make them aware of what to look for,” Donna said. Neighbors need to know whom to call when something doesn’t look right, and they also need to know how to properly describe the potential offender.

The two women said that arming themselves with information about crime and what to do in bad situations goes beyond feeling safer in their neighborhoods.

“I think we feel tougher,” Donna said.

“Citizens need to stand up and take responsibility,” Vulcano said.