Help the police

Friday, August 26, 2011

The Merrimack Police Department is asking residents (that’s you, of course) to help with its Neighborhood Watch program, an important way to help keep the community (that’s you, too, of course) safer.

How? It’s not hard: Just get to know your neighbors and keep and eye and ear out for anything that doesn’t seem right, police told our Amy Solomon recently.

It’s important. According to our recent story, police have seen “an increase in the number of home burglaries.” That’s not good for anyone, particularly the people whose homes are burglarized, of course.

And the police simply can’t do it alone. Merrimack’s department has a finite staff, responsible for covering the town 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And it’s a pretty big town, so it’s hard for police officers to be everywhere and see everything.

That’s where you come in.

Police are hoping that some of you will volunteer to be “neighborhood representatives” who will receive e-mails from the department when something important needs to get out. Then you, the neighborhood representative, will send those e-mails on to your neighbors. It certainly doesn’t sound like a lot of work and it’s important.

Suppose you live on a pretty long street and suppose a house 10 homes away is burglarized. You might not know it, so it’s possible you won’t take the extra precautions that will help to ensure that your home isn’t hit next.

But if you and your neighbors are part of a Neighborhood Watch program, you’ll get the word.

According to Robert Kelleher, Merrimack’s community services officer, the program is already doing well, but of course it can do better if you get involved.

He said there are 16 or 19 neighborhoods participating, with “more to come on board,” but why not every neighborhood, especially yours?

For more information, visit www.merrimacknh.gov/police/articles_and_tips/crime_prevention/neighborhood_crime_watch. Wow.

Or you could contact Kelleher at rkelleher@merrimacknh.gov.

Get involved. Help stop crime.

And get to know your neighbors.

It all sounds good.