If unemployment benefits are ending for many, and Civilians Unemployed for more than 27 weeks is at an all time high, while North Carolina cut Health and Human Services spending by 29% for 2009-2010, how will Greensboro deal with increasing crime as municipal tax revenues fall?

 

Rash of break-ins spurs neighbors into action

 

From Aug. 14 to Sept. 14 , the New Irving Park neighborhood had an average of one home break-in every other day.

 

That’s 16 reported burglaries in 32 days. There were six in June and three in July.

 

Although residents say police have been helpful in trying to stem the outbreak in the well-off neighborhood, homeowners have decided to take up for themselves.

 

Nearly 150 residents packed the front lawn of Erik and Jenny Kiser’s Round Hill Road home Monday to discuss revitalizing a community watch program.

 

“I think people were getting tired of things that were going on,” Jenny Kiser said. There have been car break-ins by night and home break-ins by day, but nobody has seen anything.

 

“We were trying to take a stand,” she said.

 

The neighbors discussed posting more community-watch signs, having regular meetings, organizing the large area into smaller sections and assigning block and street captains.

 

They are also taking more immediate steps such as snapping photographs of suspicious vehicles and writing down license plates.

 

…There’s also another problem: apathy. When crime spikes, people become involved, she said. When it’s not spiking, people become uninterested.

 

Anne Givan ’s home was one of the nine burglarized this month. The recent rash of break-ins has jolted residents into action, she said.

 

“I think that the neighborhood has finally woken up and realized that we have to be precautionary, rather than reactionary,” she said.

 

Dioni L. Wise

Greensboro News and Record, September 20, 2009