West River May Form
2 More Block Watches

West River neighbor Aaron Darden came to a meeting about block watches with a question: Are cops going to respond faster if I report a crime as a member of a neighborhood watch?

“You want an honest answer?” replied Officer David Hartman.

No, they’re not likely to come faster, he said. But the block watch can still make a difference.

Hartman, who’s in charge of neighborhood services for the department, said that he’s working to overhaul the block watch system to make it more efficient. That could lead to faster response times eventually, he said.

Darden walked away from the meeting, Thursday night at Barnard School, interested but not entirely convinced that he should help form a block watch in his neighborhood. He said he and his neighbors already have a decades-old informal network for keeping an eye on suspicious activity.

Darden, along with fellow Porter Street homeowner William Herring, have been looking into formalizing their group into an official block watch, one of the many groups of neighbors in the city who keep an eye out for crime and work together and with police to keep their neighborhood safe.

The pair was joined at Thursday night’s meeting by neighbors who are looking to form a block watch in the nearby Berger Apartments on Derby Street. Those people left ready to get going with their crime-watching organization.

Thursday night’s meeting was organized by the West River Neighborhood Services Corporation’s (WRNSC), whose president, Stacy Spell, is a retired police detective.

As long-anticipated walking beats and other aspects of community policing move into a higher gear, neighborhoods like West River are trying to reinvigorate older watches and start new ones.

Officer Hartman came Thursday night bearing block watch captain manuals, stickers with emergency numbers to affix to phones and windows, practical advice and safety tips, and even a specialized pen for prospective new block-watchers to engrave their phone numbers on bikes, laptops, and other often-stolen items.

Hartman is the police department’s spokesperson. Among additional caps he wears is chief liaison and cheerleader for the city’s system of block watches.

Hartman heard from neighbors on the need to increase public safety in the area. ​“We live in such a desolate area, including Porter Street. We don’t see the police. I wore the uniform. That’s why it’s important for neighbors to be involved,” said Spell.

Darden, who’s lived on Porter Street for 26 years, complained of ​“drug people” doing their business in parked cars. He said there’s a lack of police cruisers even after calls to the department.

“A block watch is a tool,” not a panacea, Hartman replied.

He said each block watch is as different as the neighborhood out of which it emerges. Some are social groups that meet regularly. Others don’t meet in person at all but communicate information through phone trees.

WRNSC Vice-President John Fitzpatrick is a mover-and-shaker with the Chapel-Ellsworth Block Watch, which meets monthly in his home. He said his group is increasingly using group text messaging to keep neighbors informed.

Hartman applauded that but suggested caution be exercised in who is allowed in a texting group or in the block watch. Not everyone on a block, particularly those with issues to be dealt with, should be part of the watch, he said. He described a watch almost like a camera, a witness, that can help the police.

Hartman said that he hopes to modernize a system of some 600 files that fill up a large portion of a room on the third floor of police headquarters. Each file is for a block watch.

He said some files are so ancient as to still bear the name of former Police Chief and Mayor Biagio DiLieto. DiLieto was police chief in the 1970s and mayor for 10 years in the 1980s.

Hartman said he could not therefore estimate the number of active block watches citywide.

The numbering system in particular is confusing. For example, Fitzpatrick’s Chapel-Ellsworth watch is #462. Hartman said that probably represents just the chronological order in which the watch was created. One of his plans is to formally re-number the watches so that all in the same area have similar numbers. A coherent system like that would prove helpful to police dispatchers when watch members call in.

In the months ahead he said he hopes to throw a pizza party and invite activists in the citywide block watches to help him spiff up this system so that he might be able to be even more helpful and to get more timely information out to the watches. He said it would be good for the watches to come to headquarters, where the brass will be able to see the level of involvement.

By the end of the meeting Darden and Herring were not completely sold.

For decades they and other families on their block have had an informal block watch, on the lookout so that stuff isn’t stolen from their neighbors’ yards. Herring said that often he asks parkers on the street who are doing drugs to please move along.

So what would be the value-added of a formal block watch? Darden asked. In particular, if Darden calls as a block watcher, will the cops come faster? he asked Hartman.

Hartman said that in all honesty he couldn’t sugar-coat the prioritizing and triaging that is regularly done by dispatchers. Is it going to bring the cops any faster to Porter Street if there’s a problem? Hartman said he couldn’t promise that.

However, he held out hope that once the block watches are renumbered in a coherent fashion, the dispatcher might be able to call a unit pass along information more efficiently, Hartman said. That could make a difference.

As Darden and Herring left the Barnard cafeteria, Aaron Darden said, ​“I’m continuing to investigate.”

Herring said he neighbors will probably proceed with a formal block watch. If that doesn’t work out, he added, ​“we’ll continue to watch out for each other.”