Safe Summer – From Woodstock PD

Greetings,

This is your PACT officer, Ron Sinfelt here. I would like to take a few minutes to give you an update on few tips for residents as it relates to summertime criminal activity in your community.

Schools in the surrounding counties are on the cusp of being released, so the neighborhoods will be populated with juveniles throughout the daytime hours. Keeping this in mind, please remind residents to try to be watchful of their speed in and out of the neighborhood. Summertime often brings complaints of vehicles “nearly missing” young children. On the subject of juveniles, the state statute on unruly juveniles provides some legal guidelines for young ones being out at night. A second specific summer issue is juveniles (those under 17) being out on public streets or property (unsupervised) between midnight and 5 am. While everyone wants our youth to enjoy their summer freedom, we receive a large volume of calls concerning juveniles loitering at night. I’d greatly appreciate all notice you could provide to your residents on this issue.

Also, please remind residents that summer time usually brings an overall uptick in criminal activity. Having said this, a great deal of summer time crime is preventable. Woodstock Police recommends residents of all neighborhoods to be vigilant in locking home and car doors and securing all windows. Please remind citizens that securing their home and vehicle(s) is a proactive step that greatly increases the likelihood that they will not be a victim of crime.

As always, please let residents know they are always encouraged to dial 911 at the first sign of suspicious activity. I also encourage residents to post any suspicious activity online at our Nation of Neighbors page (a link from the Woodstock Site). While Nation of Neighbors is never a replacement for dialing 911, this online community is a great medium for alerting the community of potential criminal activity around them. Please feel free to call or e-mail me with any concerns residents may have. Finally, I am more than happy to come to resident meetings to help educate citizens about neighborhood watch, preventing crime, and all concerns they may have.

Thank you for your help in making Summer 2011 a safe one!

Cordially,

Officer Ron Sinfelt, #1768