Published: Tuesday, July 15, 2014
By Anne Runkle
The News-Herald
The Lincoln Park Police Department recently honored two Neighborhood Watch coordinators who have built the program up to about 200 members over the past year.
Michael Parr, program coordinator, and Mary Ellen Mitchell, volunteer coordinator, were named volunteers of the year for bringing the program back. It had been inactive for some time, said Sgt. Jeff Mueller, the Police Department’s liaison to the group.
“They put a lot of their own time and effort into this,” Mueller said.
From the safety of their homes, Neighborhood Watch volunteers serve as extra eyes and ears for the police. They are instructed not to confront any suspicious situation or criminal activity themselves, Mueller said.
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By Dave Herndon
The News-Herald
Twitter: @NHDaveH
Published: Tuesday, April 08, 2014
Neighborhood watch programs can help to build unity within a block, or even an entire city, as well as help to prevent crime. There are hundreds of neighborhood watch or similar programs across the state, dozens of which are in southern Wayne County.
Some of those watch programs are city-wide, while others are simply a single block within the the community. Two of the more successful programs in he region are in Dearborn Heights and Lincoln Park, while a fledgling program in Allen Park struggles to get underway.
Watch programs used to exist in nearly every community Downriver, but as property values and tax revenues have dropped, so have resources that were spent on community policing. Both Lincoln Park and Dearborn Heights have been using Community Development Block Grant money to fund the programs. Dearborn Heights calls its program the Community Awareness program in the city, but also has some civic associations in certain neighborhoods.
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