Interest grows in watch program in Milford

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Milford Police Sgt. Matthew Fiffield has been faithful in his attempts to increase the number of Neighborhood Watch programs in the town and it seems to be bearing fruit.

Recently, about 30 people from at least five neighborhoods attended an information meeting about the program at the police station and showed interest in forming programs in their areas of town.

Right now, there’s one Neighborhood Watch program, on Christmas Tree Lane, and it seems to be successful, so the interest of other neighborhoods is encouraging.

The Watch Program aims to stop crimes like burglaries and car break-ins by showing residents how to be watchful and training them in what to do when they see something. What they don’t do, of course, is try to act on their own; they are to let the police know what’s going on and let the professionals handle things.

And that doesn’t mean just reporting a real crime in progress. It means reporting suspicions. And Fiffield makes it clear that the police want to hear these things.

Any police officer will tell you that he or she would much prefer to stop a crime rather than make an arrest after one occurs. Crimes can turn violent and no police officer wants to see anyone get hurt.

“To Serve and Protect” is the motto of the Milford Police Department and the Neighborhood Watch Program is a good way to live up to that motto.

We think it would be a good idea for other communities to get involved. Our police departments are not exactly over-staffed and our officers can’t be everywhere, so why not have some help from trained local groups that operate in a sensible, non-threatening manner?

We’re pretty sure that Sgt. Fiffield would volunteer to help other communities get started, so why not give him a call?