Local neighborhood watch groups take a stand against crime - Daily Comet

By Dan Copp Staff Writer

Wright Avenue residents were startled on a September night in 2012 when three men decided to drive through their neighborhood and shoot out the windows of more than a dozen parked vehicles.

“We had a rash of gunshots in our neighborhood,” Houma resident Mary Lynn Stewart said. “Three men went around and one night shooting out car windows. They shot out the windows of 18 cars. They even shot out the windows of three police patrol units.”

Wright Avenue wasn't just any neighborhood, however. It was home to one of Houma's most active neighborhood watch organizations.

Instead of letting criminals overrun her neighborhood, Stewart and her fellow members of the Wright Avenue and Maple Park Neighborhood Watch assisted law enforcement by working with them to catch the culprits behind the shootings.

Reviewing footage of nearby surveillance cameras, coupled with the information provided by the neighborhood watch, police were able to arrest the three suspects within 24 hours.

Four months later, Wright Avenue residents whose vehicles were damaged started getting restitution payments from the culprits.

This was just one example of how important neighborhood watch groups have become in recent years, Houma Police Chief Dana Coleman said.

“It’s a neighborhood-law enforcement initiative to show that neighborhoods are coming together to get to know each other and to combat crime, as well as getting to know the officers who serve the community, and the officers having a chance to introduce themselves to the community,” Coleman said.

Crime is something that’s not going away in Houma. According to recent statistics from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Houma has the state’s fourth-highest murder rate after New Orleans, Monroe and Baton Rouge. Houma tied with Alexandria for sixth-place in number of murders, according to FBI’s 2015 Crime in the United States report.

When he first became chief in 2008, former Houma Police Chief Todd Duplantis said the original two-group program largely focused on lowering neighborhood crimes, particularly drug and traffic violations.

Police records show that on average about 330 violent crimes occurred each year in Houma from the mid-1980s to 2008 when the program took off under Duplantis and the average dropped to about 240.

Maj. Mike Dean of the Terrebonne Sheriff’s Office said law enforcement turned to watch groups for help because crime is not only a police problem, it’s a community problem.

“Years ago people used to leave their doors unlocked and their windows open, but those days are over,” Dean said. “Community watch programs have been around for years, but it was a little different back then. It’s more organized now and structured through the watch commanders and social media. Now there’s more involvement. These groups are needed because when a criminal walks into a neighborhood and sees a sign telling them that neighbors are watching, they’re going to walk in a different direction.”

Both Lafourche and Terrebonne Sheriff’s Offices spearheaded community-wide watch programs instead of neighborhoods because of the large areas the Sheriff’s Offices cover, many of which are spread throughout rural areas, Terrebonne Parish Sheriff Jerry Larpenter said.

Gazeebo Neighborhood Watch Block Captain Judy Smart said curbing crime represents only a part of what neighborhood watch groups actually do.

“I think it’s a way to communicate with the public,” Smart said. “Neighborhood watches are an educational tool. They’re a way to educate the neighbors and to generate public interest about how to protect yourself from being a victim.”

Smart said neighborhood watch groups are “preventative medicine” for criminal activity.

“We don’t wait for the crime to happen,” she said. “If we see a suspicious vehicle or individual, we call law enforcement first. Then we let the other neighbors know about it. I’m not one who will sit there and gripe about something. I’m going to get in there and do something about it. We have to work together as a community.”

Neighborhood watch groups meet at least once a month with input from city and parish law enforcement officials.

One of the many ways neighborhood watch groups reach out to the community is through their annual Night Out Against Crime event in October, which features everything from small potlucks to block parties throughout the Houma and Thibodaux to increase awareness of crime prevention and community involvement.

Thibodaux Police spokesman Cpl. David Melancon said neighborhood and community watches play an instrumental role in crime prevention.

“They’re pretty active around here,” Melancon said. “They watch for anything that happens in the neighborhood from lost dogs to damaged property to suspicious people. It’s a good system. It’s all about communication.”

Unlike glorified portrayals of neighborhood watch groups in movies or television, real watch groups don’t engage criminals, Melancon said.

“We never expect them to take action, we expect them to communicate to law enforcement and to one other,” Melancon said. “Just by monitoring social media, we were able to link a burglar to multiple other burglaries he committed in the same neighborhood as well as dogs that had been stolen from the homes.”

“We never go on patrol,” Stewart said. “We emphasize report, report, report. If you see something that looks suspicious, call the police. It may not appear significant right then, but if they put it together with another report they may be able to come up with a pattern of a bigger crime.”

Teddy Billiot of the Pointe Aux Chenes Community Watch, which serves both Lafourche and Terrebonne Parishes, said watch groups help the community come together as one voice.

“As one voice that sends a strong message to people doing illegal activities,” Billiot said.

Houma block captain Jo Ann Pellegrin Caillouet’s Southdown West Neighborhood Watch has been keeping a watchful eye on St. Charles Avenue between Valhi and La. 311 for about four years.

“We started the group because we wanted our neighborhood to continue to be safe and secure, and we also needed assistance with stop-sign running, speeders, neighborhood blight and enforcement of pet ordinances,” Caillouet said. “To me, neighborhood watch is important because it encourages people to know their neighbors, watch out for them and report suspicious activity.”

Caillouet said participation is one of the keys to a robust neighborhood watch program, but sometimes that can be easier said than done.

“It’s challenging in these busy times to get people to attend meetings,” she said. “Most people care about the neighborhood, but it’s just hard for people to find that additional hour or two for a meeting. Also, stop-sign running and speeding are ongoing issues, so it’s been hard to evaluate and feel like any progress has been made on that problem.”

Mulberry and Barrios Neighborhood Watch block captain Terri Dufrene said that group serves as the eyes and ears of the Houma Police Department.

“We report to Houma Police, local officials and councilmen about neighborhood crime and problems,” Dufrene said. “We hold monthly meetings with HPD, and I keep them informed of anything suspicious.”

Through working side-by-side with law enforcement over the years, Stewart said she forged a special bond with police that she never thought she would have.

“If you would have told me 12 years ago that police officers would be calling me by my first name and sit around in my living room once a month to talk to my neighbors, I wouldn’t believe you,” Stewart said.

--Staff Writer Dan Copp can be reached at 857-2202 or at dan.copp@houmatoday.com. Follow him on Twitter@DanVCopp.

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