Neighborhood Watch in Rosario to “Make It Uncomfortable for Crime”

— by Margie Doyle —

Call when you see something wrong

Rosario area residents are being asked to look out for each other through the formation of a Neighborhood Watch.

About three dozen property owners and residents gathered at the Moran Mansion for a meeting of the Rosario Homeowners Association on Wednesday, January 29, to discuss ongoing disruption, caused, it is believed, by illegal drug activity in the area. Houses on Geiser’s Way, Grove Street and Ocean Mist Way were identified. Under-sheriff Bruce Distler said that the occupants of the house on Geiser Way are believed to be selling methamphetemine from the mainland.

Distler met with the group to clarify what the County Sheriff’s department could and could not do, given the complexities of foreclosed homes, late-night in-and-out traffic, the limitations of surveillance with just four officers to patrol the whole island, bizarre behavior (“Did you see anyone hit by a car?” a driver asked a resident; “I think I may have hit someone”), and police dogs trained to sniff out drugs. All this activity comes to a head after a Dec. 23 home burglary where the occupants recognized the AK-47-armed intruder, who turned himself in to the Orcas Sheriff’s office the next day.

Rosario residents asked Distler whom they should call to report suspicious activities: he recommended calling his 378-4151 number, which is answered 24/7, or the 911 emergency number. When one resident complained that after calling the 378 number, dispatch told the caller that her call would be returned, but that call never came. Distler promised to look into that incident.

He urged the group to establish a Neighborhood Watch, and suggested it not be limited to monitoring suspicious or criminal activity. “Signs alone don’t do the job. Does the community want it? Will there be equal involvement?

“It doesn’t just have to be about law enforcement; it can be about providing for your community.”

With a Neighborhood Watch, neighbors would watch as a team, feeding information through a contact person to make notes or call for police response and start calling neighbors, using a phone tree. The Sheriff’s office has already worked with area residents to establish a Neighborhood Watch on Geiser’s Way, with plans to expand the program to Grove Street and Ocean Mist Way, and perhaps on to Palisades Way.

The Rosario homeowners asked Distler to contact the bank which owns the house to contact the mortgage owner and/or change the locks. If the occupants are squatters, the Sheriff’s office can assist in getting them out. They urged the under-Sheriff to place road “counters” across Rosario roads to record the frequency and times of road traffic,

One attendee recommended that people install home-security cameras with zoom lenses aimed at the sites of suspicious activity.

Residents repeatedly emphasized that they want the drug-dealing activity to stop, and there was general agreement in the use of the highly-visible Neighborhood Watch signs to combat illegal drug activity. “We want to make it uncomfortable for crime to be in the neighborhood,” one attendee said.

As the meeting drew to a close, the neighbors promised to make the reporting calls so that no one person could be “targeted’ as the source of complaints

The Neighborhood Watch message has been successful elsewhere and Rosario residents are saying loud and clear: “We are watching out for each other.”