Police Offer Holiday Crime Prevention Tips

By ANDY GOROSKO

Published: Dec 12, 2003 12:00 am

By Andrew Gorosko

As part of its general crime prevention program, the police department is offering residents some safety tips to help them protect themselves and their property from crime during the hectic holiday season.

Police Patrol Officer David Kullgren said this week that while on holiday shopping trips, residents should keep any valuables out of plain sight, while they are being stored in motor vehicles.

Gifts, assorted valuables, and purses should be kept locked out-of-sight in the trunks of autos, not in the passenger compartment, where they would be visible to potential thieves.

While shopping in stores, purses should be kept zipped and should be kept on oneâs person, according to Officer Kullgren. Purses should not be left unattended in shopping carts or in baby strollers, he said.

Officer Kullgren urges that while on holiday shopping trips, residents should park their vehicles in well-lighted areas, where there is activity. Officer Kullgren is a member of the police departmentâs crime prevention unit with patrol officers Maryhelen McCarthy, Andrew Stinson, and Amity Robinson.

The anticrime unit plans to issue advice monthly to residents on crime prevention, Officer Kullgren said.

One of the unitâs prime roles is organizing and supporting the local Neighborhood Crime Watch program in residential areas across town.

The police department reactivated the crime prevention unit recently, focusing on the crime watch program. The project provides neighborhood groups with useful information on how to maintain safety and security in residential areas. Through the program, police train participants how to look for and report suspicious activity in their areas.

Neighborhoods that have either formed crime watch programs or are considering doing so include Whitewood Road/Middleton Road, Taunton Lake Road, Maltbie Road, Cobblers Mill Road, Pearl Street, Juniper Road, Dinglebrook Road, and Kent Road.

Officer Kullgren said that even if the residents of a neighborhood are not interested in forming a crime watch, a police officer would give residents general information about crime prevention. Such informational talks also are offered to civic groups.

Officer Kullgren said the crime watch program has been well received by residents. Neighborhoods that participate in the program have âNeighborhood Crime Watchâ street signs prominently posted, stating that people living in that area are on the lookout for suspicious activity.

As part of the crime watch program, police make security reviews of homes to explain how residences can be made more secure from crime.

Subjects in the policeâs crime prevention program includes personal safety, self defense, child safety, CPR and first aid, gangs, drugs, vandalism prevention, fire prevention, annoying telephone calls, victim-witness services, observation skills, bicycle safety, fraud and con games, theft prevention, safety tips for seniors, auto safety, latchkey kids, automatic teller machine precautions, car-jacking, holiday precautions, home security, recognizing substance abuse, and graffiti prevention.

Groups interested in having a Neighborhood Crime Watch informational session may contact officers Kullgren, McCarthy, Stinson, or Robinson at the police station at 3 Main Street, telephone 426-5841.

Also, residents may use the police department âtips lineâ to leave police a message about nonemergency crime. That telephone number is 270-8888.

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Reservoir Rd. does indeed appear to have an interesting history that I often ponder as I hike the Rochambeau Trail. Early on it was apparently part of a main route from the center of the Borough to Taunton, which went up Mt. Pleasant Rd. and then roughly followed a watershed boundary from Mount Pleasant to Taunton Hill. When the current switchback road was built from West St. to Castle Hill in the 1800s, replacing the indirect route through the campground that Rochambeau used, the part of that original route to Taunton now known as Reservoir Rd. became redundant. But on an 1868 town map and topographic maps from 1892 and 1915, it looks like both routes were still maintained as roads. By the time of the 1934 aerial survey of CT, the connection to Mount Pleasant Rd. (maybe called Reservoir Rd. by then since the reservoir is visible) even had two outlets onto Castle Hill Rd. Since it is only shown as a partial dashed line on a 1953 topographic map, it may have stopped being maintained as a passable through road by then. But on a 1963 topographic map, where the section down to Knollwood Dr. had become a normal road again, the other end is shown as a dashed-line road, still with two connections to Castle Hill Rd., and a structure on the east side where one can still find remnants of a house today. Maybe a longtime resident can add comments about what it looked like in the 1950s and 1960s?

Clarity on Reservoir Road and the Rochambeau Trail

Please stop referring to your fellow Newtowners as the Mob. I was at the Legislative Council meeting where Mr. Pisani insulted the intelligence of a room full of Newtown voters; twice, and not in a satirical way. Plenty of new projects have been given the green light - the repurposing of the Taunton Press property is a welcome addition to Town, a new retail center is under construction on Church Hill Rd there are ongoing plans for the existing Fairfield Hills campus. Newtown is a wonderful place to live. Kudos to the Town officials who have managed to grow Newtown and maintain a small town feel, which may mean saying no to development more often than you would like. There will always be two sides to any proposal - different points of view are welcome and essential - name calling adds nothing to the conversation.

Who is Calling Newtowners Stupid?

Appreciate your perspective. Rather than litiate all of your opinions expressed here, here....I would like correct your opinion about the BOS having the final authority on road discontinuance decisions. State statute (CT GS 13a-49), requires the BOS' decision to be approvate by a majority vote at a regular or special town meeting (just like the one Newtown had a few years back to decide to spend the money to build an addition onto the High School). In towns that no longer have any town meetings, that responsibility would fall on the town's representaive government, or legislative body....in Newtown's case, our Legislative Council. Failure to follow this statutory process is but one of the reasons the town/the BOS is being sued.

There are many private roads in Newtown where they property owner owns right to the center line, for example this is often true in the lake communities. Many of these roads predate and do not conform to the Town's roads standard and therefore the Town never accepted them into the Town road system. Does the Town actually own this road?

It’s important to clarify the tone and context of Derek Pisani’s remarks, particularly the satirical line about suing Newtown for "Gross Stupidity." This was clearly a tongue-in-cheek jab at the exhausting culture of legal threats that’s become a staple on the local Facebook Group forums. It was a reflection of frustration over endless regulatory hurdles and obstructionism, and the desire to avoid common sense solutions not an insult aimed at residents. Satire, is meant to provoke thought and highlight the absurdities. If we are unable to distinguish between satire and literal threats, perhaps the comment hit closer to the truth than we’d like to admit. Rather than focusing on Pisanis style, we should be discussing the substance of what he’s pointing out: that Newtown’s progress is being routinely blocked by a small but vocal contingent who seem intent on saying “no” at every turn. They are saying no to any development, no to common sense solutions to crowd control, etc. Newtown deserves leaders who are willing to call things as they see them, even if their language ruffles feathers. That doesn’t mean they lack respect for constituents—it means they care enough to challenge the Mob and push for solutions. Isn't that what we elect people to do? I applaud Pisani's dedication, he certainly has earned my vote. Regardless, let’s not reduce conversation to tone-policing and outrage. Let’s focus on the issues that matter.

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Police Offer Holiday Crime Prevention Tips

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