Are residents watching out for each other?

By Jami Kunzer

August 8, 2000 Web posted at: 1:30 PM EDT (1730 GMT)

ELGIN, Illinois (Daily Herald) -- Signs throughout South Elgin warn criminals to stay away. When it comes to suspicious activity, the signs announce, eyes are watching. But are they really?

Not necessarily in South Elgin areas where once-active Neighborhood Watch programs are now defunct.

It could be complacency, a sign of busy times or a lack of crime causing the demise of this five-year-old program. Whatever the reason, police and village officials have made it a top priority this year to turn Neighborhood Watch into more than metal signs.

"What we have to do is find what it's going to take to spark the neighbors to get involved," said South Elgin Trustee Gary Hyman, a member of a committee looking at ways to restore the program. "The comment I've heard is, 'Why do we need Neighborhood Watch if the crime is down?' When we start letting our guard down is when our safety is going to be jeopardized."

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Neighborhood Watch is designed to bring police and residents together, to encourage neighbors to get to know one another and to fight crime. Block captains are chosen to call with questions or concerns about the neighborhoods. Those captains host regular meetings with police, who bring in speakers to talk about crime prevention. Then block parties and other social gatherings develop.

Or that's how it's supposed to work.

But with all the growth and the moving in and out of South Elgin, the programs haven't seemed to go anywhere.

"It's kind of a little bit of a sign of the society today," said South Elgin Police Sgt. Randy Endean, a community liaison officer for the department. "Everyone is quite busy."

In the last several years, police have tried to reach out to the community with a citizens police academy and Explorer and expanded DARE programs. And the department is using its first Harley-Davidson police motorcycle to cruise through neighborhoods and visit with residents.

But, they say, neighbors just don't know each other any more.

Many new subdivisions in South Elgin, including Thornwood along Randall Road, are only partially built, so police and residents are having a hard time getting to know the area and one another.

"We're waiting until they get built up," interim Police Chief James Spivey said. "It's tough right now because they're in the process of building out."

But even some in established neighborhoods aren't interested in Neighborhood Watch anymore.

"I think it's just because in some areas there isn't a big crime problem or nuisance problem," Endean said. "The problems around when Neighborhood Watch started have been long solved."

But fighting crime is only one of the benefits of Neighborhood Watch, officials say.

In neighborhoods including Sugar Ridge, where the programs thrive, neighbors become friends. They let one another know when they're leaving for vacation. They cook out together, watch each other's children.

"Any program that networks people, it can't be bad," said Trustee Hyman, who lives in Sugar Ridge. "That's the problem with today's society, we don't have time for each other anymore. We forget about our families. We forget about our friends. And we forget about our neighbors."

The lack of interest sometimes leads to burdened and burnt out block captains. Tom Kusswurm, one of three Ashton Court block captains, sends out newsletters on village and police department happenings and helps plans an annual block party.

"Our frustration is once we get a block captain and they see the signs go up, they think that it's done with," Kusswurm said. "There's a lot more to it. You've got to watch your neighbors."

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