Residents sound off about neighborhood watch programs
Monday, November 13, 2006

O fficers in the Jersey City Police Community Relations unit got an earful from those in attendance at a meeting to discuss new neighborhood watch programs.

The meeting began with comments from Jersey City Police Chief Tom Comey. Deputy Police Director Al Pease, Greenville Councilman Peter Brennan and Ward F Councilwoman Viola Richardson also attended.

Citing a family emergency, Comey left early after turning the meeting over to Police Officer Lorenzo Tosado of Police Community Relations, who gave a slide presentation explaining how the block watch program can be organized by neighborhood associations.

"Block watch" is not a new concept, neither here nor elsewhere. In fact, there are many streets in the city with neighborhood block watch signs.

During the question-and-answer period that ensued, it became clear many residents fear that the criminals will be the ones doing the watching, and would take revenge on anyone who calls the police. Others believe people related to criminals participate in such programs as a way to tip off their kin to police activity.

Both Tosado and Community Relations Commander Thomas Julian attempted to allay their fears by saying the program has devised a way of maintaining their anonymity.

Eventually, as very often happens at police community meetings, audience members started quizzing officials about police response and quality of life issues. Local merchant Pat Sebrone made an impassioned statement about what she described as deteriorating conditions on Martin Luther King Drive.

Sebrone spoke about the number of street lights that are out on MLK Drive as an example. Drug dealers often disable street lights to make it easier for them to sell their wares at night in the shadows of a street corner, she said.

Councilwoman Richardson told the crowd that at one point she and her office, in conjunction with the Jersey City Department of Public Works, documented hundreds of lights that were broken on MLK Drive.

"They fixed every one of them," Richardson said. "But almost as soon as they were replaced or fixed, they were broken again."

One resident wanted to know if more closed-circuit TV cameras can be installed in their neighborhood. Julian said the cameras were obtained through a state and federal grants.