Police encourage growth of crime-watch programs

GREENFIELD — It seems hard to believe a little orange sign could make such a big difference.

But Elaine McDowell says just having that sign, the one that tells visitors to Sugar Creek Valley Estates the neighborhood’s residents have their eyes peeled for suspicious activity, has made her home a safer place to live.

Bearing “Boris the Burglar,” the patented cartoon character whose image has become synonymous with residential crime-watch programs, the sign alerts would-be law-breakers to the fact they are being monitored by sharp-eyed homeowners trained to recognize suspicious activity.

McDowell, president of the Sugar Creek Valley Estates homeowners association, said having a crime-watch program has lessened criminal activity in the addition significantly since the watch’s inception in the area six years ago.

“I believe the signs that we have posted will deter the riff-raff,” McDowell said. “We’ve had a great reduction in theft in our neighborhood since the signs have been posted.”

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