By Basia Radomski
Ottawa-Carleton Street Watch wants to expand its services in Centretown. But police are concerned that residents may not welcome the initiative.
Street Watch was formed in 1996 by husband-and-wife team Janey and Richard Faye out of concern that crime was rising in Centretown, says Richard Faye, 38.
The volunteer organization patrols streets daily. “We check for unlocked doors of houses and cars and we make sure there are no broken windows. If we see anything wrong we call the police,” says Janey Faye, 45.
But Const. Tim Senack of the Somerset Street Community Police Station says the group is asking for trouble by checking cars and homes for unlocked doors because not many people like strangers snooping around their property.
“If a person saw them around his car, he’s not going to think twice,” says Senack. “They are going to get thumped.” He says Street Watch is not affiliated with the police.
Barry Sparks, 33, is a Street Watch supervisor. He maintains that the Street Watch services benefit the community. “This is a positive thing and we go about it the right way. All we need is support from the community.”
Sparks says that he has experience in running this sort of neighbourhood watch organization because he was involved with a similar group. He used to volunteer at the Street People Association for the homeless in Toronto.
Sparks says organizations like Street Watch aim to make the streets a cleaner and safer place.
This is why Street Watch has applied for a small business grant from the government, so it can continue looking out for the community.
The group hopes the money will help its expansion.
They want to set up offices around the city and create more opportunity for the community to get involved. It plans to have more street volunteers so they can cover a wider area, Sparks says. “The business grant would help us get started and it would allow us to get more people involved. Maybe down the road we could start creating jobs and paying people.”
Street Watch is made up of four full-time volunteers. They travel in pairs, mostly during the evenings, and communicate through cell phones or walkie-talkies.
They are on the lookout for burglars but they also pick up used needles and watch for fires, says Faye.
The Fayes say they are “the eyes and ears of the police.”