|
Citizens team up with police
By Sarah Krebs
Staff Reporter
Police
officials say Code Blue: Citizens on Patrol, a program where citizens
help patrol their own neighborhoods, helps deter crime in Fort Worth
including neighborhoods surrounding TCU.
TCU Police Detective Kelly Ham said although citizens do not patrol
on campus, the program improves communication between the community
and the police officers and helps decrease the crime rate around
TCU.
The C.O.P.s patrol their neighborhood and report knocked over stop
signs, broken water pipes, overgrown yards, illegally parked carsand
any other suspicious activities, said Thomas Schmidt, Fort Worth
Police Department neighborhood patrol officer.
“They are an extension of our eyes and ears,” Schmidt
said. “Officers are zipping from one call to another and don’t
have as much time to develop a personal relationship with the people
in the neighborhoods.”
The participating groups around TCU include the Park Hill patrol
group, north of campus, and the Frisco Heights patrol group, east
of the campus, Schmidt said.
The patrollers are all regular citizens who wear a light blue uniform
and have no authority other than a direct line to the police, Schmidt
said. Each patroller is part of one of the 200 groups in Fort Worth
that have their own radio and use a different channel than the police
to communicate throughout the city, Schmidt said.
Betty Richards, captain of the Frisco Heights patrol group, said
she started patrolling about a year ago because she wanted to help
out in the community.
“I don’t really see much, but we really try to be observant,
particularly with all of the car break-ins,” Richards said.
C.O.P.s started in 1990 when the late Fort Worth Police Chief Thomas
R. Windhamrealized the police needed more community involvement
in solving crimes. He began an initial citizen training class with
115 people, Schmidt said.
“It has definitely been proven in the last 10 years that the
city of Fort Worth would not be enjoying such a low crime rate without
the help of the C.O.P.s,” Schmidt said. “Without their
help, there is no way we could accomplish this.”
Katie Walker, a senior Spanish major who lives in the Frisco Heights
area, said she did not even know there were citizen patrollers in
her neighborhood.
“I think they could maybe send e-mails to the students and
maybe put (the information) in the neighborhood newsletter, then
more people would know about it,” Walker said. “There
are lots of families who live around me and I’m sure the parents
would be willing to help.”
Police also began advanced training for citizen patrollers Tuesday
to aidin disaster situations and better utilize the manpower provided
by the citizen volunteers, Schmidt said.
Molly Roussin, captain of the Burton Hill patrol group, said the
additional training will give police officers more time which will
allow them to do their job more efficiently.
Roussin said she has been a patroller since 1995 and was made a
captain five years ago. She also said her neighborhood participates
in the Great American Clean Up, National Night Out and has received
a $17,500 grant of to pay for neighborhood improvements.
Sarah Krebs
s.d.krebs@tcu.edu
|
