CRIME FIGHTER
BOARD CHIEF TOUTS VALUE OF BLOCK WATCH
Byline: By Veronica Combs, Special to Community
Richard Fox has brought both green releaf and crime relief to his central Phoenix
community.
A neighborhood activist whose first project was to bring trees to his neighborhood streets, Fox has expanded this project to help empty them of crime by founding a community organization and by joining the Block Watch Advisory Board.
''We're the eyes and ears of the Police Department and the heart of the community,'' Fox said.
After serving on the board for two years, Fox is now the board president. He works with the Police Department to educate citizens about crime prevention and to promote Block Watch in other parts of the city.
Fox first got involved with community organizing when he worked with Global Releaf to plant trees in his neighborhood.
''We were the first neighborhood in Phoenix to get trees on our streets,'' he said.
Using his experiences from this project, Fox founded Fairview Place Citizens Association, a neighborhood organization for his eight-block community bounded by 15th and 17th avenues, McDowell Road and Encanto Boulevard.
Fox said citizens in his community first met in December 1990 when they noticed an increase in crime in the neighborhood.
''Records of the Police Department show that crime in our neighborhood dropped after that,'' he said. ''We had another meeting in 1991, and it dropped again.''
A June report from the Phoenix Police Department's Planning and Research Bureau indicated that all types of crime in the neighborhood were very low, and that in 1991 crime was one-third less than in the previous year. Residents decided to skip the 1992 meeting, which turned out to be a bad decision.
''Because we all communicate within the neighborhood, we realized crime had gone through the ceiling, there were little pockets of crime everywhere,'' he said. ''Within a week we had the entire neighborhood organized and a meeting set.''
Fox first heard about Block Watch, a program sponsored by the Phoenix Police Department, from a police officer, and after attending a few meetings, he joined the advisory board.
This year Block Watch is receiving help from from community action officers who are assigned to specific neighborhoods in Phoenix as part of the community policing program. Fox said these officers take care of problems on a people level.
''A woman in our neighborhood suspected drug activity on her street, and she called the police, but she didn't want a marked police car to come to her house,'' Fox said. ''So the officer taught her a process to track the person's activities, taking license numbers and keeping track of times and dates.''
The officer assigned to Fox's neighborhood attends Block Watch meetings to talk to citizens and to distribute a phone number where he can be reached.
One of Fox's goals as president is to involve more officials in Block Watch. For the board's first meeting, Fox has arranged for representatives from the federal, state, county and city governments to attend.
''We're looking for funding, more information, anything they can do to help us promote Block Watch,'' he said. ''We''re all interested in crime prevention.''
As part of its crime-prevention program, Block Watch sponsors the annual National Night Out Against Crime on the second Tuesday of August. This nationwide event serves as a big block party that gives neighbors a reason and an opportunity to get out and meet each other, Fox said.
During last year's celebration, there were food and information booths set up around the neighborhood.
''We had refreshment stands all over, so people had to walk the entire neighborhood,'' he said. ''It's the only time of year they all got outside to talk to one another.''
Fox describes Block Watch as a way to rebuild communities and to heal their citizens. ''In our society there's a lot of reasons to be separate and mind our own business,'' Fox said. ''Block Watch is a reason to mix and get to know one another.''
He said that there is a wide diversity in his neighborhood of age and race, and that the Block Watch meetings sometimes cause controversy.
''We're not going to agree on much, but we all agree on one thing: we don't want crime in our neighborhood,'' he said.
Working with Block Watch is rewarding because it is democracy in action, Fox said.
''I like people to be responsible for the control of their own destiny,'' he said. ''Block Watch is a tool for empowering people.''
Photo by Peter Schwepker /Staff photographer
Richard Fox, the new president of the Block Watch Advisory Board, calls Block Watch ''a tool for empowering people.''