Neighborhood Watches Are Our Watchmen on the Wall

Throughout history, we have always had heroes who are watchmen on the wall.  These brave men and women are not afraid to blow a trumpet to sound alerts that evil is approaching. Gangs and the evil they bring to neighborhoods are blighting our community and the cost is loss of life, peace, safety and liberty. You don’t have to wear a uniform to be considered a watchman on the wall.  When you see evil approaching in your neighborhood, be that hero, be that watchmen on the wall.  This is a story about a 40-member neighborhood watch that sounded forth like trumpets, and helped save a neighborhood in Spring Valley, California.

Back in 2006 I was a newlywed and enjoying life in my new home with my husband. We were so happy to be in our new home which we purchased just two months before our wedding day. The streets of our neighborhood are lined with luscious landscaping and fruit trees and we felt safe there.  We spent almost all of our free time fixing up our modest home in Spring Valley.  

But in 2007 we experienced mail theft. Our mail had been taken from our mailbox and the perpetrators stole our mortgage checks.  They were able to use these checks to access our bank accounts (not only once but twice). Then in 2008, our home was burglarized, and we soon found out that our home was one of eight homes that were burglarized.  That is when I decided to join our neighborhood watch.   As neighbors, we began to meet in our homes and it became evident from our conversations that many more crimes were being committed in our neighborhood. 

We believed the source of the crimes were tenants that had taken up residence in a 60-unit, multi-family apartment complex. Gangs had taken up residence there. They had organized children and teens to do some of their dirty work. Some children were observed on top of the roof of the complex acting as spies to watch the comings and goings of neighbors and police. Some children had been recruited to sit in front of neighbors’ yards, and while pretending to “just be hanging out,” they were actually documenting our habits of when we were or were not at home. 

Some of the burglaries happened when we were at church or attending school.  Some teens were suspected of what police term "grab and goes."  They would enter neighborhood stores and grab items and split.  These suspects were often clothed in dark sweat pants, shirts and hoodies and carrying back-packs.  Once entering our homes, the items stolen (such as iPods, laptops, video games, cameras and jewelry) could be grabbed easily and stored in back packs. 

Other more disgusting behaviors were occurring.  Neighbors were finding condoms and observing teens having sex in their driveways.  Some teens were roaming the streets and some would lie down in the street and expect other residents to drive around them.  There were riots in the complex, a rape, an eight-year old boy shot in the foot, and people fighting and hitting each other with baseball bats.  Our nights were always disrupted by the sounds of people arguing and cursing at one another.  My husband was shot at with a beebee gun while retrieving our mail.  There was vandalism.  Police were at the 60-unit complex on a daily or weekly basis.  Soon our neighborhood sounded like a military zone, as helicopters were often seen hovering over our neighborhood searching for thugs and gangsters. 

As proud as we were of our law enforcement that were responding to our neighborhood’s pleas for help, my husband and I realized that law enforcement needed more help. So we sent an e-mail to our county supervisor, Dianne Jacob.  Her legal advisor, Bob Spanbauer contacted us the very same day.  We invited him to meet with us and as we sat together in our back yard discussing with him our fears and concerns for our own safety, and the safety of our neighbors,  Mr. Spanbauer gave us his heartfelt promise that law enforcement would be provided all of the necessary resources they needed to help fight crime in our neighborhood.  I’ll never forget the day, when as I was leaving to go to work one morning, I saw over 100 law enforcement and county officials performing a raid at that apartment complex that resulted in the arrests of 13 people. 

Neighborhood watches are watchmen on the wall.  They sound the trumpet when they see evil approaching.  They can provide detailed information to law enforcement that will aid them in their search for evidence, and documentation that can help put gangsters in jail. At the request of neighbors, law enforcement can meet with their neighborhood watches to provide them with necessary training and tips that will help strengthen their neighborhood watch programs.  To be truly effective, neighbors must be able to provide evidence of crimes.  One of the most important tools that can aid law enforcement is your own daily log that provides “detailed information” on suspects and the crimes being committed. 

Neighborhood watch programs have other agencies at their disposal that can help support their efforts in the prevention and reduction of crimes that are perpetrated against neighbors by nuisance tenants.  We observed teens engaged in smoking pot and underage drinking on a daily basis.  The East County Public Safety Task Force will work with neighborhood watch programs when nuisance tenants and nuisance properties threaten the health, peace and safety of neighbors. 

A member of the task force, Joseph Eberstein of Institute for Public Strategies (IPS), met with us and our neighbors on an ongoing basis and provided hope and support when at times we thought our neighborhood would never be safe again.  IPS was instrumental in obtaining the support needed for the “The Crime-Free Multi-Housing Training Certificate Program/Ordinance.”  This program was eventually adopted by the San Diego County Board of Supervisors and now we have beneficial training in our county available for managers and property owners to help them better manage their properties. The ordinance will come up for a 1-year review July 2011. Now that this program is in place, we have seen a huge reduction in crime in our own neighborhood.  Because of this ordinance, non-compliant properties managers/owners that refuse to do anything about their nuisance tenants and properties can be fined. 

Call your local law enforcement and organize your neighborhood watches.  Watchmen on the walls are heroes every neighborhood needs.

Debra Gilly
Spring Valley