Byline: By Ryan Konig, The Arizona Republic
Arizona owes a debt to Glendale and to west Phoenix neighborhoods for pioneering several
crime-prevention programs.
West Valley residents are responsible for the creation and popularization of programs to make neighborhoods safer and to improve security at apartment complexes.
They also have worked with city officials and state lawmakers to enact new laws and ordinances to crack down on slumlords, businesses that allow crime on their premises and stores that sell spray paint to minors.
--> Gerald Abmont, who lives in the Heatherbrae neighborhood in west Phoenix, began an effort about four years ago to pass a city ordinance to ban the sale of spray paint to minors. This, he believes, has reduced Phoenix's graffiti by more than half.
In 1995, 15 businesses were cited under the ordinance. But last year, there were no citations. That's because businesses are cooperating with the program, Abmont said.
--> In Glendale, Pat Butler helped popularize a program to reduce crime at apartment complexes. Called the Glendale Crime Free Multihousing Program, it teaches apartment managers how to improve security and check backgrounds of prospective tenants.
Similar crime-free programs since have been used to trained hundreds of apartment managers throughout the Valley.
--> Lora Lee Nye, a northwest Phoenix resident, has been dubbed the Godmother of Block Watch. Her efforts in the late 1980s and early 1990s helped create the Phoenix Block Watch Advisory Board and the Phoenix Block Watch Commission.
The two groups have worked with police, city officials and neighborhood leaders to create or strengthen hundreds of Block Watches throughout Phoenix.
--> Donna Neill and Paul Enniss, leaders of two neighborhood associations near 27th Avenue and Camelback Road, founded a statewide coalition called NAILEM: Neighborhood Activists Inter-linked Empowerment Movement.
NAILEM has lobbied successfully for four pro-neighborhood bills during the past two legislative sessions. The bills promise to make it easier for neighborhoods to crack down on owners of apartment complexes and commercial properties if crimes repeatedly occur there, and to give neighborhoods more of a voice in the state's process of issuing and renewing liquor licenses.
--> West Phoenix neighborhoods were among the first to use Phoenix's Block Watch on Patrol program when it began a few years ago. Police train volunteers on how to patrol communities and report problems.
The success that west Phoenix neighborhoods have had with the patrols has encouraged other neighborhoods to pick up the program.
The West Valley's efforts have earned national recognition:
--> Last year, the Maryvale UNITE neighborhood in west Phoenix won Neighborhood of the Year honors in a national contest.
The competition was sponsored by Neighborhoods USA, a non-profit organization, which selected Maryvale UNITE because of its program to improve the exterior of homes in west Phoenix.
--> In 1994, Phoenix won first place for its participation in the annual National Night Out celebration.
The honor was handed out by the National Association of Town Watch, a Philadelphia organization, to recognize the work Phoenix has done to make people more aware of crime and crime-prevention programs. Phoenix's participation in National Night Out that year was organized by Richard Fox, a west-central Phoenix resident, as president of the Phoenix Block Watch Advisory Board.
Type of story: Sidebar to: ''CRIME BLOCKERS/Block Watch on Patrol members keep an eye on neighborhoods''