Morgan City revives neighborhood watch program

Morgan City police and community members took the first step Wednesday in bringing back a neighborhood watch program to the city.
Police and residents met at Morgan City High School to discuss the watch program. Wednesday’s meeting was for residents living in the area north of Onstead Street bordered by Levee Road, Sixth Street and Veterans Boulevard. Police started in that area because of the interest shown from residents.
There are plans for up to 13 different watch groups in Morgan City. The neighborhood watch meetings will be informal gatherings for community members in different sections of the city, Police Chief James Blair said.
The police department has been using social media to communicate with the public, but Blair wanted to further develop that communication through a watch program.
Meetings will allow police to inform residents what activity is going on in their neighborhoods, while residents can provide feedback to police, Blair said.
Morgan City hasn’t had a neighborhood watch program in over 15 years, and Blair wants this program to be sustainable, he said.
Residents Dianne Weeks and June Mire live near the high school and said they came to the meeting because they want their community to be a safe place to live.
“Our area’s pretty quiet, but we want to keep it that way,” Mire said.
Morgan City had a neighborhood watch program in the 1980s but “it’s just kind of fallen away,” Mire said.
The program was one of former Police Chief Travis Crouch’s “big dreams,” Mire said. Crouch died in January 2014.
“I’m just happy that we’re finally going to get it off the ground,” Mire said.
Mire and Weeks are going to try to get more residents involved with the program, they said.
Blair encouraged residents to designate “block captains” for each watch group.
Residents will decide when to hold meetings and police will help coordinate them. Blair plans to meet with the block captains on a quarterly basis to discuss what’s going on in different areas.
Lt. Kenneth LaCoste, the police department neighborhood watch liaison, will also meet with the block captains. Block captains will schedule and organize meetings.
LaCoste said residents should call police for any situation that needs immediate attention and not their block captains. Residents should only report incidents to their block captains if the situations don’t require immediate action, he said.
LaCoste said the program is designed to get residents to know one another better so people feel more comfortable looking out for one another.
At meetings, police will provide ongoing education and tips for residents to try to keep them from being victimized by burglaries and even violent crimes, LaCoste said.
Meetings will be conducted as often as residents want to hold them with a police department representative, LaCoste said. Feedback from residents will let police increase patrols in certain areas.
Police plan to notify the public of future neighborhood watch meetings in other areas of the city at least a month in advance, LaCoste said.
Resident John Eldredge wants “to try to unify our efforts to keep ourselves from being victimized.” The group plans to look out for their neighbors and “be our brothers’ keepers,” Eldredge said.