Neighborhood Security

Security and quality of life issues are our responsibility. By our, I mean the residents of this community. If we fail to live responsibly then we shouldn't complain when others around us act irresponsibly. In the past, law enforcements motto was "to protect and serve" but this is no longer the case. Law enforcement should be there to enforce the law. This doesn't seem to be the case any more either. It seems that our police force reacts to crimes in progress or after the fact and is forced to focus on felony crimes that a jury will convict. If this is the case then WE have to become responsible for "Crime Prevention" in our neighborhood.
Walnut Hills is not a high crime area when it comes to quality of life issues. Most police calls are domestic disputes or petty thefts and vandalism. Petty crime however should be curbed because it can cause good residents to move away because they feel that nothing can be done to prevent it.
The problem is that we still expect the police force to "protect and serve" at a time when their job is to arrest criminals. They can't arrest criminals in Walnut Hills if we actively make an effort to prevent crime. If we can prevent crimes from occurring then the criminal element will reside and do their deeds elsewhere.
We are going to make an effort to form active and organised block watch groups. Blythe Williams has volunteered to spearhead this effort and can be contacted at blythewilliams@earthlink.net

A tentative plan is to divide the neighborhood into at least 7 sectors as follows. Section #7 may need to be divided into two managable areas.



We would hope to find one responsible person per block to be block captains and one of those captains should be a sector leader. People can report anything unusual to the block captains who can convey relevant information to the sector leader who could broadcast to the neighborhood via this web page or through email.
We don't expect miracles overnight and some sectors will exhibit more volunteerism than others, but it is a start. A block watch group is only as good as it's best leader. If we only establish this in 4 sectors then at least half the neighborhood is a safer place to live in.

We need to locate block captains and sector leaders so if you know the name of the most likely candidate on your block, please submit the name to Blythe. We won't take just anybody. I tend to do criminal and civil record searches on individuals on a regular basis. We may also consider a residency requirement for captains and sector leaders to ensure longevity of the block watch group.

In the last two years we have done a lot of exciting things and this is just one more to make this a more tightly knitted community.. The ultimate goal here is to make Walnut Hills the most desirable neighborhood to live in within 2 miles of downtown Dayton. I think that is an achievable goal.