As most of you know, we have been working on starting a neighborhood watch patrol program. Â It’s finally happening, but due to the size of the SRCC neighborhood association, we are starting with a pilot program in areas 4a and 4b. Â If you are unfamiliar with the SRCC areas, you can see on this map ( http://bit.ly/ktvYn7 ) that 4a and 4b are bounded by Woodland, Oltorf, I-35, and Alameda/Rebel. Â We chose these areas based upon the amount of crime and the number of volunteers willing to participate.
The Austin Police Department requires that each volunteer be trained prior to participating in patrols. Â To that end, John Luther, with the Barton Hills Neighborhood Association (BHNA) Neighborhood Watch Program, has graciously agreed to train our initial group of volunteers based on BHNA’s highly successful patrol program. Â The training will consist of classroom training as well as supervised patrols (for people participating in vehicle patrols), all provided by John Luther and his team.
If you are interested in being a part of our pilot patrol program for areas 4a and 4b, we have set up the initial training and hope you can attend on one of the following two dates (the same program will take place on each day if we have enough interest):
Wednesday, June 22 at 7:15pm; or
Thursday, June 23 at 7:15pm.
Both training sessions will be held at the fellowship hall at Grace United Methodist Church, 205 E. Monroe (where the monthly SRCC meetings are held).
We anticipate the training will last between 1-1/2 to 2 hours, including going on supervised vehicle patrols with John and his team. Please let me know as soon as possible if you can attend one of these training sessions. We will offer additional training sessions at some point in the future but we are hoping for a good number of people next week so we can get this pilot program off the ground. We are seeing an increase in home and vehicle burglaries, and those statistics tend in increase even more in the summer. This time is perfect to help move those statistics in the other direction.
Thank you all in advance for your willingness to help make our neighborhood a safer place for everyone! Please contact Shelly Vornberg (shelly.leibham@gmail.com) if you are interested in participating in the training and just tell her what night you’d like to attend!
