The document discusses the formation of a new Crime Prevention Committee in the Cumberland Estates neighborhood. It aims to reduce crime committed by outsiders in the community. The author calls on residents to get involved by becoming Block Captains, attending monthly meetings, and reporting suspicious activity. Basic home security tips are also provided, such as using peepholes and door wedges instead of chains when answering the door to strangers.

1. Crime
Prevention
May 16, 2010
New Crime Prevention
victimizing them -- through theft, vandalism, HOME SECURITY TIPS
or even violence.
Committee Forming Now
I have seen too much in this small community Take great care . . . you don't ever
to stand by and allow it to continue any have to open the door.
longer. I have asked the leadership of our
Home Owner's Association to allow me to • Peepholes ... to see who's there.
head up the Crime Prevention Committee in Wide-angle peepholes are a highly
an effort to convince the unwelcome that recommended viewing device
they are better off preying on someone else's because the person outside doesn't
neighborhood. know that you see him/her. If the
peephole is covered, do not open the
I'm asking you to get involved. In order to door.
We've all seen it, more than once, and as make the Cumberland Estates Crime • Chain locks ... a false sense of
summer approaches we'll be seeing much Prevention Committee a success, I need security. Chain locks are not
volunteers from every block of every street recommended because they are
more of it. What is it? Unsupervised teens
in our neighborhood to become Block mounted with short screws and have
walking the streets of our neighborhood
Captains. I need people who can commit to weak chains that can be easily
looking for trouble. They often come from
meeting on a monthly basis to discuss broken.
outside the Cumberland Estates community
incidents in the neighborhood and strategies • Door wedges really work. A door
and have no business in our neighborhood.
to prevent them from recurring. I need wedge is a better alternative when
people who are willing to pick up the phone you wish to open your door only a
and call not only local law enforcement few inches to speak to a stranger.
This past January I was playing with the kids
in the family room when my wife saw
someone walking across our back yard toward Most importantly, never open the door to
the house behind us. As we watched, this someone you don't know and don't expect.
young man approached the back door of our The majority of home invasions occur when a
neighbor's house and tried to pull it open. "solicitor" comes to the door selling
She was home, and he didn't belong. something and forces his way in when the
door is open.
I stepped out of the house into the snow in
jeans and a pair of house slippers and called Remember, soliciting is not permitted within
out to the intruder. He turned away from me, Cumberland Estates. Tell unwanted solicitors
careful not to show his face, and began to that they are trespassing and that you will
walk away. Calling back to my wife to call 9- call the police if they don't leave the
1-1, I headed out the door after him. neighborhood. THEN MAKE THE CALL!
but also myself and other Block Captains
when troublemakers in the neighborhood are
I found the young man sprinting around the headed their way.
neighbor's house and into the street, where
his look-out buddy was waiting for him. They
both ran, and I followed, calling 9-1-1 as well I already have several volunteers, but
on my cell phone. nowhere near the number needed to make
this program a success. I need you to join us,
To make a long story short, the Cumberland by contacting me today:
Police Department found the two individuals
at a house not a quarter mile away from Jeff Cole
Cumberland Estates, just a block across
Tenth Street. write2jeff@gmail.com
317-644-6154
While I don't encourage you to take matters
Call 9-1-1 for Emergencies
into your own hands chasing down intruders We will be having a kick off meeting soon to
with ill intentions, I do beg you to become organize, strategize, and identify both urgent
involved in helping to take our community and long term goals to make Cumberland Non-emergency dispatch:
back from the type of slime that thinks they Estates a crime-free community.
can draw from those around them by (317) 327-3811
Join us today.