Freeville Neighborhood Watch protects community

If you’ve driven in and out of the village of Freeville a lot, you’ve probably noticed signs on the village line notifying drivers that Freeville is a Neighborhood Watch community. But what does the Freeville Neighborhood Watch actually do?

When some picture a Neighborhood Watch program, they might imagine residents patrolling the streets for criminal activity, but as Stephanie Goddard, Freeville Neighborhood Watch coordinator, emphasized, “There’s no patrol. There’s no vigilantism.”

Neighborhood Watch Programs n Tompkins County are managed by the Sheriff’s Department. As County Sheriff Derek Osborne explained, “Its main purpose is to facilitate communication amongst neighbors themselves and with law enforcement.”

“In modern times, it seems that neighbors don’t often know each other as in times past,” he said in an email. “Establishing a Neighborhood Watch Program allows neighbors to connect and work together to keep each other safe and reduce crime in their residential area. The Sheriff’s Office assists in creating the structure needed, provides street signs, and provides/receives information to/from watch members relevant to that neighborhood.”

Sheriff Deputy Karl Bowers acts as the Sheriff’s Office’s point person for county Neighborhood Watch Programs and communicates with all the local coordinators like Goddard. In Freeville’s case, Neighborhood Watch communications are conducted by email (FreevilleNeighborhoodWatch@twc.com) and reported on the Freeville listserv.

Goddard emphasized that the Neighborhood Watch Program is not and should not be used as a substitute for calling 9-1-1 in an emergency. The Neighborhood Watch Program is best suited for nonemergency matters like seeing law enforcement activity in the area.

If a resident sees a lot of officers at one location in the village, for example, they can reach out to the Neighborhood Watch Program, where Goddard can communicate with Bowers and provide the resident with as much information as possible as to why the officers are there.

“It’s simply a way of providing the Sheriff’s Department with a single source conduit for information, not only to avoid multiple calls to the authorities for the same thing but also to have one person, in that case, Karl Bowers, who is immediately receptive to anything that his coordinators send to him,” Goddard said.

Goddard explained that Freeville’s Neighborhood Watch Program has been around for about three years and started because the community was experiencing a rise in juvenile vandalism and people rifling through unlocked cars at night.

“We initially had one meeting, which was held at Bravo restaurant,” Goddard said. “Karl Bowers came, and then-Sheriff Ken Lansing was also in attendance. He outlined for us, Bowers did, how the program works and was just sort of gauging the community’s interest in having a program here. And then once it was decided there was an interest, we had an organizational meeting that was publicized. And that’s when I agreed to be the coordinator.”

Goddard has lived in Freeville for over six years and has a long history in law enforcement, so becoming the Neighborhood Watch coordinator was an easy decision, she said.

“I actually worked in law enforcement in the early ’70s in the Washington, D.C. area,” she said. “I was with Falls Church Police Department for about three years. … I have a strong sense of public safety and a strong sense of being aware when something’s not quite right. So, of course, it’s just in my nature. And I’ve done a lot of volunteer things for the community. At the time, I was the co-president of the Freeville Community Council. And I was about to rotate off. So, when the opportunity came along, I agreed readily to be the coordinator.”

In her experience with the program, Goddard said she’s come across plenty of misconceptions about what the program is and how it works. She said that some people have come to her to tell her about suspicious activity days after they saw something.

“We’ve been very, very fortunate in this community that we haven’t had any real problems where people were frantically up in arms or anything like that,” she said. “But … I am reminding people all the time, if you see something, say something, call 9-1-1. They’d much rather respond to something that turns out to be nothing than to have you regret not calling in the first place.”

Goddard said she plans to stay coordinator of the Freeville Neighborhood Watch for a while, as she thoroughly enjoys the work and being involved in her community.

Osborne said that Neighborhood Watch Programs are generally established after a neighborhood or municipality expresses interest in the program, so if any community would like to start their own program, he and the rest of the Sheriff’s Office are happy to assist. He added that he and others will be working to expand the existing offerings of the Neighborhood Watch Programs in the coming months.

“I’d like to explore setting up each watch with quick alert capabilities through our county alert notification system,” he said. “During this budget cycle, we are seeking additional non-sworn staff positions to assist in creating additional community engagement activities, and I see expanding our watch program through these positions.”

To learn more about the Freeville Neighborhood Watch Program, email the previously listed address or visit freevilleny.org.