By Taylor MacPherson

Petty crime triggers neighbourhood watch in P.A.

Nov 29, 2016 | 4:00 PM

Sick of the minor crimes plaguing the Midtown area, one Prince Albert resident decided to take matters into his own hands and start a neighbourhood watch program.

“There had been petty crimes, which I know is not unknown to Prince Albert,” neighbourhood watch founder Peter John said. When not keeping an eye out, he works as a correctional officer.

John said thieves stole several valuable items when his garage was burglarized a few months ago. When he started talking with neighbours about the problem, John noticed many others were victims of similar crimes.

“Things happen like that all the time, and I’m sure it’s the same people doing it,” John said. “If anything needs to be changed, you’ve got to get up and do it yourself.”

For the past few weeks John handed out fliers to his neighbours, and started a Facebook page to promote the neighbourhood watch to the community.

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John said a neighbourhood watch is an important tool to remind people they play an active role in their communities.

“I felt they kind of lacked that in Midtown,” he said. “I know winter can isolate people even more.”

For safety reasons, John said the watch would be limited to observation to avoid any confrontations with suspected wrongdoers.

“I don’t want anybody to approach people,” he said.

The goal of the watch would be collecting and compiling information on problem areas or suspicious behaviours occurring in the Midtown neighbourhood, which could then be passed on to authorities. John said certain houses in his area seem to attract vagrants, and are crime hotspots.

“The more people I talk to, the more problems we can identify,” John said. “What are they seeing? What are they identifying as problems in the area?”

“I just want to see people taking care of people,” John said.

P.A. Police community liaison officer Sgt. Travis Willie said he was in favour of locally-run neighbourhood watch programs.

“I think it’s a great idea,” Willie said. “Police would want to be involved for sure.”

Mayor Greg Dionne said he thought a neighbourhood watch was an “excellent” idea, and said the city and police would both “absolutely” support local watch programs.

Taylor.macpherson@jpbg.ca

@TMacPhersonNews