Colebrook Crime Watchers Advocate Alert Vigilance

COLEBROOK — A group of 15 or so volunteers gathered last week at Town Hall to discuss the implementation of a new, townwide Neighborhood Crime Watch program.

Though few crimes have been reported in Colebrook since the town first gathered to discuss the plan with State Trooper Roy Dungan in June, First Selectman Jerry Rathbun said Thursday he thought there remained a very real need for a program of this sort.

"Things have settled down, we have to be careful not to get complacent," he said.

According to the selectman, there have been no break-ins in Colebrook since the June meeting and only one reported larceny in the past three months. Still, Rathbun stressed the importance of remaining vigilant.

"I think it’s still a very good idea," he said. "We all have to be — not paranoid, but — vigilant. Vigilant of what goes on around us. It’s a small town, we’ve got to watch out for one another."

Rathbun said he wasn’t expecting a large turnout at the event, held last Wednesday evening in the Town Hall’s meeting room. He said he has a list with 15 to 20 names on it of people who had shown interest in volunteering for the program.

"Only one or two [of those] people contacted me [prior to the meeting] to say they couldn’t make it; everyone else was there," he said.

Though nothing was set in stone at last week’s meeting, the 15 "core members" present agreed to look into the methods other towns have used in setting up a townwide crime watch program.

Rick Tillotson volunteered to do some research on other towns in Litchfield County in an effort to gain insight into what such an undertaking will require of the town.

"We’ll try to see if we can find somebody in Litchfield County who has [a townwide Neighborhood Watch program] so we can get some tips on how to do it," Tillotson said. He said he thought Salisbury and Sharon might have programs similar to the one Colebrook is trying to implement, and will follow up on those leads in the coming weeks.

Among the options being considered is breaking the town down into four quadrants — north and south of Sandy Brook Road, east of Route 8 and west of Route 183 — each constituting one "neighborhood."

But Rathbun expressed slight concern that this method might lead to problems down the road.

"People living on the divide might not pay attention to what’s going on on the other side of the road," he said.

Rathbun and Tillotson said the volunteers at last week’s meeting are a good representation of the various neighborhoods that make up Colebrook.

Rathbun said these individuals would be called upon in the future to spread the word about the program and to act as liaisons between the townspeople and the dispatcher — although he stressed there would be no formal chain of communications.

"I think there’s a danger in making it too formalized. If you see something and you need to make the call, you do it," he said, posing a hypothetical situation. "Don’t worry about notifying the ‘neighborhood captain,’ just make the call."

Rathbun said funding for Neighborhood Crime Watch signage is available, and he is awaiting input from the town as to where they should be installed.

"This is a town program," Rathbun said. "It’s not a selectmen’s activity; it’s about townspeople looking out for townspeople. The only way this is going to be successful is if the townspeople take it on."

Tillotson said he had confidence in the town’s ability and initiative.

"We have a strong core of people who want to get this started," he said.