Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 27, 1995 TAG: 9507280005
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHARLES STEBBINS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
And, she's looking forward to participating in the 12th annual Night Out on Tuesday with her neighbors as they try to take another swipe at crime.
The Night Out event is designed to send a message to criminals that they are being watched. Neighborhood watch programs throughout the nation hold the event the first Tuesday in August. Mount Pleasants activities will be held from 7 to 10 p.m. on Ellington Street, across from Mount Pleasant Elementary School.
Another Night Out event will be held by residents of Dover Road in Southwest Roanoke County. But this group will do only the porch light vigil.
Tammy Coldwell, one of the leaders in the Dover Road group, said this is the first year her neighborhood has participated in the Night Out event. Her group will become more active in future years, she said.
In the Mount Pleasant area, Ham and many of her neighbors formed the watch program "so the people can take back our neighborhood."
The Mount Pleasant watch is one of about 70 in Roanoke County, and Tom Kincaid, crime prevention officer with the county police, said it's one of the more active groups.
"They're doing great," Kincaid said of the Mount Pleasant group. "They're showing that people do care what happens."
Ham, co-coordinator of the neighborhood watch, said that for the first 10 years of the Night Out program, residents only turned on porch and walkway lights. But two years ago, they expanded the program and residents now spill into the streets, sometimes with live entertainment.
This renews their commitment to the program, she said, and also gives a visual message that the people of the neighborhood are organized.
People in a neighborhood keep watch all year, Ham said, but the annual Night Out program gives a message to the whole community and celebrates the quieter watching that goes on constantly.
More than 100 people turned out in Mount Pleasant last year, Ham said.
"There were people everywhere," she said, "in the streets and in yards."
Ham said neighborhood leaders from several other communities throughout Southwest Virginia attended last year's program to get pointers on organizing similar programs in their own neighborhoods.
Phyllis Hunter, the other co-coordinator of the Mount Pleasant watch program, said the secret to a successful program is the cooperation of all the people in the neighborhood.
In the Mount Pleasant area, Hunter said, a vast majority of people participate.
And the effort has paid off, she said.
"We had right much crime when we started," she said. "But there is not as much now as their used to be. All in all, the watch program has helped to cut down on crime," she said.
Kincaid said most of the county's neighborhood watch programs participate in Night Out, which is dubbed as an event to "give criminals in your neighborhood a going-away party."
In some neighborhoods around the country, Kincaid said, the Night Out programs have become elaborate community parties with potluck suppers, cookouts, live entertainment and neighborhood walks by groups of residents to ferret out any lurking criminals.
Kincaid said that all watch programs everywhere instruct citizens not to attempt to apprehend criminals but to watch for suspicious activities or people and report to police.
by CNB