We can learn from how others combat crime
BY CARMEN CALDWELL
Special to 
Posted on Sun, October 16, 2007
My staff and I just returned from the eighth National Conference on Preventing Crime in Atlanta. Our Youth Crime Watch of Miami-Dade won the Crime Prevention Program of the Year for populations over 250,000. We are very proud of this award, but I want to tell you about the other winning programs so you can see what is happening across the country.
- Nick Arlt (Crime Prevention Citizen/Volunteer of the Year) has spent five years making a difference in the lives of residents of De Pere, Wis. He arranged for his company, Festival Foods, to sponsor National Night Out activities by the De Pere police department, raising $50,000 to purchase a K-9 dog for the department and raising more than $9,000 through fundraisers and special events in support of the crime prevention foundation in Brown County.
- Daryl Pearson (Crime Prevention Officer of the Year) is a 26-year police veteran in Walla Walla, Wash., much of it spent advancing crime prevention initiatives. He instituted 21 crime prevention programs, taught 15 citizen police academies and pushed for state lawmakers to pass crime prevention resolutions.
- Ewa Weed & Seed, (Crime Prevention Program of the Year, locality or city of under 250,000 population). This Hawaii program is an outstanding example of successful crime prevention activities that unite residents, law enforcement, businesses, social services and others.
Ewa formed 37 security watch groups and citizen patrols to significantly reduce illegal activities.
The organization collaborated with Ewa Beach businesses, nonprofits, churches, and residents to conduct community events from food distribution to police mentoring EWA youths to neighborhood cleanup and restoration projects. - Darkness to Light (Crime Prevention Program of the Year, state or national), founded seven years ago with headquarters in Charleston, S.C., has made a big impact on preventing child sexual abuse. The organization tackles one of NCPC's four strategic goals -- protecting children and youth -- in an online or in-classroom program that focuses adult attention on this problem that costs the nation more than $23 billion in direct and related costs. It has trained more than 75,000 adults on how to recognize, prevent and react to child sexual abuse.
- Virginia Crime Prevention Association (Crime Prevention State Association or Coalition of the Year) has saved them more than $700,000 in annual training costs and conducted more than 110 training courses and presentations reaching nearly 3,700 individuals in more than 200 locations.
Using a grant from the Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Assistance, the Association hosted two forums for state crime prevention program leaders to discuss opportunities to enhance crime prevention services to areas in Virginia.
Carmen Caldwell is the executive director of the Citizens' Crime Watch of Miami-Dade. Send feedback and news for this column to cmcwatch@aol.com, or call her, 305-470-1670. Send letters to the editor to mhamaludin@MiamiHerald.com.
