AREA WATCH PROGRAMS HAVE VARIED SUCCESS

After living in the 1100 block of Cousin Street for a year, watching drugs being sold in front of her house, Jodi Treece said she has had enough.

"How do I explain to my children when they ask me what these people are doing on our street?" said Treece, a mother of children ages 5, 3 and 9 months.

Earlier this month, Treece and Cpl. Rick Schmidt went door to door along Cousin, Hanover and Henderson streets asking neighbors to do something about safety in their part of town.

"Some people were very interested, and others didn't know much about the idea of a neighborhood watch," Schmidt said.

Most police departments around Southeast Missouri are attempting to get people to look out for each another through community watch programs, so far with varying degrees of success.

Cape Girardeau now has two neighborhood watches that meet monthly at the police station and one just forming. Along with Treece's newly formed group, Schmidt is trying to unite residents along Northwoods Court.

Homeowners around Ellis and Morgan Oak streets have been working with the police and each other for over a year.

South Ellis Street resident Ron Acord is surprised at the results.

"We've had success with all the issues," he said. "I really didn't think it could happen this fast."

Last summer, Acord said he would pick up trash around his yard twice a day. With people standing on his street all day, waiting to sell drugs, litter accumulated.

"Now it's like a normal yard," he said. "Some weeks, I don't even have to pick up trash."

Involvement the key

For watches to be effective, residents must be ready to get involved. This doesn't mean standing nose-to-nose confronting troublemakers alone, Schmidt said.

"Someone has to be ready to sign a complaint, go to court and testify," he said. "That is the key."

In a couple weeks residents in Charleston, Mo., will be walking their streets looking for trouble, armed with cellular phones, police Chief Richard Couch said.

The "citizens patrol" was created to handle situations that aren't police problems, Couch said, such as how a neighbor parks his car or teen-age nuisances.

The patrols go against the flow of contemporary culture, Couch said.

"In the 1950s, we lived in a different society," he said. "In this day and age, people are generally afraid to get involved."

Charleston has increased opportunities for interaction with a police substation. It has served as a base for the department's detectives and social service agencies providing job assistance, Couch said.

Police in Sikeston, Mo., are supporting two neighborhood watch groups and working on starting four more, officer Shirley Porter said.

The watches got started after a 19-year-old man was killed in a shooting Aug. 26 near Lee Hunter Elementary School. Groups ranging between 15 to 20 are meeting monthly to discuss how to stay safe and what to watch for when criminal activity is suspected, Porter said.

"If you've lived in a neighborhood long enough, you know who belongs there and who doesn't," said Jack Burton, Sikeston's officer in charge of community policing.

Burton said he advises residents to be bold. If a stranger is knocking at the door of a neighbor who is out of town, tell the stranger. That way, Burton said, the person knows someone is watching the house.

So far the groups are mostly middle-aged and elderly residents, but Porter is trying to get young families interested.

Perryville, Mo., is working to rebuild a neighborhood watch program that has deteriorated, police Chief Eugene Besand said.

Ideas for more community intervention and neighborhood watches are in early planning stages now, Besand said. Realizing the plans is a necessity to good law enforcement.

"We have 20 officers in a town of 8,000 people," he said. "They see a lot more than we do."