The Garden City Telegram
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Police looking to make PACT
Published 11/21/2009 in Local News
By RACHAEL GRAY
In an effort to make neighborhoods and the city safer, the Garden City Police Department is doing away with Neighborhood Watch and instead switching to Police and Citizens Together, or PACT.
At Tuesday's Garden City Commission meeting, Police Chief James Hawkins talked about the change and explained to the council that Neighborhood Watch has become ineffective. He said PACT would create and maintain relationships between a police officer assigned to a certain neighborhood or district in Garden City and a few residents in the neighborhood. Through those relationships, the police would identify the most problematic concerns in their assigned areas and tackle them.
Garden City police Sgt. Michael Reagle, explained that instead of having a member of the neighborhood be the captain of the watch, a police officer instead will be assigned to the neighborhood.
The idea for the program came from a department in Suwanee, Ga., a which uses PACT effectively, Reagle said.
Neighborhood Watch has been in effect in Garden City since the early 1980s and basically has been inactive for the past 13 years, Reagle said.
"We've been working on the program for the past year and couple of months. It's the route that we would like to take. The city approved it Tuesday," Reagle said about PACT.
To become involved in PACT, Reagle suggests people talk over the possibility with their neighbors to generate interest. Then, they should contact the police department for information and organization, he said.
Each police officer assigned to a certain neighborhood or district is responsible for holding three meetings throughout the year to discuss issues, build relationships and offer crime prevention tips. In turn, the officer will receive feedback from the neighborhood.
Reagle said the officer is responsible throughout the year to respond to the concerns and complaints of the neighborhood.
He said each neighborhood will have a secondary officer in case the primary contact is not available.
Reagle thinks the PACT program will be more effective than Neighborhood Watch.
"We'll likely have more participation when the citizens don't have to take charge of it. Our officers will take care of everything," Reagle said.
To get the program going, Reagle said, police plan to set up contacts with certain neighborhoods and train the people in that neighborhood.
Reagle said the police department will start contacting neighborhoods in December that showed interest in the program.
"Hopefully we'll get those neighborhoods involved in PACT by the first of the year," Reagle said.
People interested in participating in PACT should talk to their neighbors, then call the police department at 276-1300.
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