Being Safe in the Neighborhood

Common sense tells us that when the economy becomes stressed, people become stressed. Stretched out on bills, stressed out at work, and often deliberating more activities that are not always legal to make their ends meet, people veer towards residential theft and motor vehicle theft to make up the difference. Throw in your already known criminals, and the theft rate goes up.

Cyndie Parks is the Community Programs Coordinator for the Renton Police Department Crime Prevention Unit. She offers home inspections to see if you need to upgrade and improve the safety of your home against burglary and theft. She teaches classes a couple times a year for women's self defense, and she hosts Block Watch Meetings for anyone who wants to get their neighborhood motivated to watch each other's backs and let the criminal element know that your block isn't easy pickins
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Every month, Cyndie compiles and sends to all attendees of Block Watch meetings within the last year, a newsletter giving a recap for the month of burglaries in the area you live in for single family homes. Cyndie will also note how many of those crimes were committed in active Block Watch residences. In additon, there is always a further news update and a list of suggestions on how to protect you and the loved ones. It is a monthly reminder of keeping what is important to you safe.

Now it is more imperative than ever to look at how you can make improvements on keeping your home safe and sound. We are so fortunate that Cyndie's free advice and assistance is still available to us when we are seeing downsizing in every arena of our lives these days.

I have had the pleasure of meeting with Cyndie Parks myself on a couple of occasions, the last one being at the North Renton Neighborhood Association Meeting that was held a little over a week ago. Many neighborhoods have such associations, (look here for yours) and you should look to see if yours has one - it is a great and painless way to be nominally involved in your community and hear first hand what is going on around your home.

Give Cyndie Parks a call today - (425) 430 - 7521 cparks@rentonwa.gov

Block Watch has many benefits: (to paraphrase one of Cyndie's handouts)
*The program is FREE
*The program is EASY
*It helps citizens feel better about their neighborhoods
*It helps to reduce crime on the block
*It helps get appropriate police services
*It helps to capture and apprehend ciminals