Northwest Arkansas car break-ins spark talk of neighborhood watch

BENTONVILLE -- About 40 members of the Riverwalk Farm Estates neighborhood gathered in a large garage recently. Ranging from young professionals to retirees, they shook hands and chatted in view of the manicured lawns and wide street.

It's a place where many feel comfortable leaving doors unlocked and letting children ride their bikes after school, but they're considering forming a neighborhood watch after a two recent car break-ins.

"It's been the feeling conveyed to me that it is time to start looking at this, because things can go from bad to worse if you don't address them when they are small," Harold Albaugh, Property Owners Association president, said at the group's May 18 meeting. "It's our neighborhood. We need to make a decision on what we are going to do."

Breaking and entering is Bentonville's most common crime, according to police. Pairs of thieves -- often not from the city -- commit most of these crimes by finding unlocked cars and taking electronics and handguns left in them, said Gene Page, Bentonville public information officer.

"We do have a lower crime rate, so I think we feel a little too safe that we are not locking cars at night," Page said.

The city had 65 instances of breaking and entering of vehicles May 20-23, he said.

"This activity is unusually high for us and was spread out across the city," Page said. "Again, the majority of the vehicles were unlocked at the time of the crime." While the incidents happened all over town, the majority were in two areas: south of the square and west of the Bentonville Community Center, he said.

Bentonville's Police Department recently bought software Page likes to call the heat map. It updates daily and allows police to see at a glance where crimes are happening and gives more accurate information to residents.

Page said police get a greater number of calls from the Riverwalk neighborhood, specifically for suspicious activity. Statistically, neighborhoods calling police more about suspicious activity have lower crime rates, he said, because it keeps police informed and patrolling those areas.

"Basically it's all about communication," he said. "I've worked in other larger cities before I came to Bentonville, and we would lose entire neighborhoods, because there was no communication between law enforcement and the citizens that lived there. The crime rate goes up quick."

Resident policing programs were associated with a significant reduction in crime, according to a 2008 U.S. Justice Department analysis, one of the most recent reports available. On average, Neighborhood Watch communities saw a 16 percent decrease in crime when compared with control areas, the report showed.

However, the results were mixed and showed some programs worked well while others didn't, according to the analysis report. "It remains unclear whether Neighborhood Watch deters offenders or enhances police investigation," it said.

Many Signs, Little Action

Modern neighborhood watch programs have been around since the 1970s, largely unchanged. By 2000, roughly 40 percent of the U.S. residential population was covered by these resident crime-watching programs, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

The National Neighborhood Watch Institute products are in use by 13,000 safety and emergency management agencies and housing authorities as well as concerned residents, according its website. Many of the street and yard signs with the iconic bandit can be seen in Northwest Arkansas communities, but police said most are old and don't reflect the actual number of neighborhood watch groups.

"There's just not that many that are still active," said Sgt. Craig Stout, Fayetteville police public information officer.

Page warned the Riverwalk group that signs alone don't deter criminals.

"The signs are just the bark," Grossman said. "The observant neighbor and trained participant is the bite of the dog."

In Bentonville, police provide their own free "Lock, Watch, Report" signs to any neighborhood that wants them. The signs also have the non-emergency police number.

"It's more as a reminder for us as residents than it is to scare potential robbers," Page said.

A neighborhood watch in Riverwalk would be the only active group in Bentonville as far as police are aware, Page said.

"I think it's awesome and well worth having signs up. People need to watch each other's houses," said Melanie Allen, who has lived in Riverwalk for a year. "I love it here. It's quite a good neighborhood."

Fayetteville has two active groups at East Magnolia Drive and Azalea Terrace and at the Fayetteville Country Club, Stout said. Rogers has at least two active groups -- one in Indian Hills and one in Clower Farms -- that have been in contact with police this year, said Keith Foster, public information officer. While Springdale also has several, police said they don't track the number.

Watching Out

Some communities initiate watch programs to take back their neighborhood from criminals while others think of it as a deterrent, said Geoff Grossman, the national institute CEO. Either way, they see themselves as more vulnerable than they would like to be.

"It helps people be aware they don't have to be victims," he said. "They alone might not be able to make a difference, but there is power in numbers. You're not to be the arm of the law, but the eyes and ears."

The neighborhood associations typically recruit residents to participate in meetings and various surveillance tasks and name block captains to lead and serve as liaisons to police.

Kenneth Cooper helped start the neighborhood watch group around East Magnolia Drive about a decade ago. He and two other captains keep in touch and, with the help of other diligent neighbors, watch out for suspicious activity. They have designated people who call the police. Older members of the community are able to watch during the day and write down any suspicious vehicles and watch over houses of those out of town, he said.

"You have to have neighbors that are willing to watch and participate," Cooper said. "They work really good as long as everyone is working together."

The watch has been able to help police catch multiple criminals and has made the area safer, Cooper said. Many of the thieves have been adolescents and everyone at the local schools know about the watch, he said. While the residents are vigilant, Cooper emphasized working with the police.

"Don't get out and chase anyone," he said. "That's the police's job."

Many communities in Northwest Arkansas may not have an official program, but do have owners associations with active Facebook pages and regular meetings, which can fill many of the goals of a neighborhood watch.

"POAs already have everything done. A POA is a watch; it's just not called a watch, because they already know each other and communicate with each other and look out for each other," Foster said. "The only element I need them to add on is when you see something suspicious, report it."

Page encouraged residents to join the city's eight-week citizen's police academy program, which begins June 8.

Homeowners can buy alarms and security cameras and police technology is advancing, Grossman said, but there's no replacement for neighbors looking out for each other.

"That's real time, right now," he said.

NW News on 05/30/2017