Enough is enough. That’s the message nearly an entire community is sending to outsiders looking to cause trouble in their neighborhood.
After a rash of about seven burglaries in the past six months in the 375-home Walker Gordon development off Plainsboro Road, residents formed a Neighborhood Watch. Led by co-presidents Jennifer Black and Marc Rubenstein, more than 200 residents have signed on to the idea.
Rather than just hang the signs in their windows and occasionally keeping their eyes peeled for suspicious behavior, the residents of the community have joined together to create a full on movement — including forming a schedule for patrolling the neighborhood, collecting money to purchase stickers to designate residents’ cars and alert them to any strangers, and even creating a private website to share information with each other.
And with a parade on May 22, residents kicked off their efforts in raising awareness about their cause, and to show they’re serious.
“If it happens once, it’s a random incident,” said Rubenstein. “When it happens multiple times, it’s cause for concern. You want your kids to live in a safe community.”
Efforts began when the Homeowners Association invited Plainsboro Detective Eric Potts to a meeting, which Black attended. She said the police told residents that in order to make a difference, they needed someone to take the lead. Black volunteered to help, and by default became the lead person.
That’s when Rubenstein offered to also help. “She was asking people to volunteer their time, and I definitely wanted to help,” he said.
But, the reason why the Neighborhood Watch has been so successful is because the community came together, Rubenstein said. “Our strategy was if we can get everybody to do a little bit, and was a little more vigilant, a little more visible, then we can really make a difference.”
Black said the group has held four meetings so far, each with close to 100 residents in attendance. “We’ve organized a walking patrol schedule,” said Black. “We divided our neighborhood into various walking routes. Residents signed up for different time shifts each day in which, ideally, teams of two walk around the neighborhood and take note of license plate numbers and any suspicious activity.”
She said residents have already recorded a few incidents of suspicious activity in the last few weeks. “We probably have about 60 people who have signed up to walk and patrol the neighborhood.”
The Neighborhood Watch has also collected funds to purchase stickers for houses, order T-shirts for people who are patrolling, and reflective vests for people who are patrolling at night to enhance their visibility, and thus their safety.
“We’re ordering decals for our cars as well, so we can tell which ones are owned by residents of the community, and which are not,” said Black. She said the group has also set up a website just for residents of the community to communicate with each other. “If residents want to spread messages to the rest of the community, they have an easy tool for communicating with each other. We have about 200 people logged into that, and the messages are going out on a regular basis.”
Black, Rubenstein, and many of the other residents have never organized a movement like this before, but the Plainsboro Police, including Potts, have been working closely to assist them. Potts even presented a PowerPoint slide with tips for residents at one of the meetings, Rubenstein said. “We have an engaged and active community right now because everybody is concerned with what’s happening,” Black said. “We want to do anything we can to prevent and deter any more burglaries.”
Black, who works for a consulting company doing training strategy, moved to the development five years ago from Metuchen. Her father is an engineer for Ford Motor Company, and her mother is a nurse and medical school instructor. She and her husband, a marketing manager at Dow Jones, have three young daughters.
Rubenstein, a physical therapist, moved to the development with his wife, also a physical therapist, six years ago from Franklin Park. His mother was a teacher in South Brunswick for 30 years, and his father was a software engineer. He and his wife have two children.
Like many of their neighbors who have joined the effort, Black and Rubenstein balance their efforts with their home life. Both say they moved to the development because of the nice area, which does not have much crime. “I’d like to think it was a place I’d like to stay,” said Black. “We love the school district, and we think if we can get rid of these burglaries that are terrorizing the neighborhood,” the quality of life will be restored, she said.
An additional benefit to beginning the Neighborhood Watch is that it allows neighbors to make connections with each other. “As we’ve started to organize, the more we know each other, the more we can tell when things aren’t right,” said Black. “We know when someone is on vacation, and when someone shouldn’t be at their house. It’s allowing us to get to know each other better and protect each other better.”
Rubenstein echoed the sentiment. “The key thing is that it’s not one person; there are many people who need to work together to be more vigilant, to be more visible, in order to prevent future burglaries,” he said.
The short-term goal is to prevent further burglaries. The long-term goal is to better connect the community, she added. The parade on May 22 was to “symbolically show unity and to show the outside community that we are very involved in this now,” Black said.
“If everyone does their part, we will be successful,” said Rubenstein, who manages the block captains, who help to organize the patrol shifts. “Everyone has busy lives, but you’ll get to know the people on your street. We hope to get even more involvement from the people in the community.”
