A wide variety of participants are needed to launch a successful Neighborhood Arson Mobile Watch program. In this section, necessary participants are listed, along with a description of the kind of support needed from each. As many of you know, implementing a community-based project requires the interest, cooperation, and support of many people. But it all is definitely worthwhile!
Increasing the safety of a neighborhood benefits everyone from children and parents, to local businesses. Not only does reducing arson activities in our area increase everyone’s quality of life, but it can also help increase property values. We are aiming for zero tolerance for arsons and quicker response from natural fires.
CHAMBER OF COMMERCEThe local Chamber of Commerce is the ideal organization to coordinate the program. They should be asked to help build interest in the program by announcing the program to its members at meetings, and running press releases in newsletters or membership mailings. (Be sure to check the press release section for samples). The Chamber of Commerce should also be requested to act as liaison between their members and the Local, State and Federal Agencies. They will need to schedule with the USDA Forestry Service, Fire Arson Criminology Department and Community Relations Officer of the Police Department a time to come and talk to their members, (more than one meeting may be necessary). Once the program is started, Chambers collect and keep track of participants and schedule training sessions, and issues certificates of completion to participants (a nice touch!). In addition to training, signage and print materials are needed. The Chamber can contract one of their members to make the magnetic signs and order the cling stickers with the imprinted logos, and print flyers. Other tasks that Chambers can perform to increase the success of the program are to create a list of target participants, send flyers to these targeted businesses and individuals, and alert media sources.
FIRE DEPARTMENTSThe Local Fire department will provide a Community Relations person to explain to participants the need to report arsonists and simple things you can do to minimize the potential exponential and aggressive natures of small containable fires until the fire department arrives with the proper tools to fight the fire. They will explain how to set up road blocks and secure easy access for fire vehicles to arrive. They can explain when to get out of there and which direction to go. They will also explain what the reality of your limits are based on the type of equipment in your vehicle.
USDA FORESTRY SERVICEThe USDAFS will explain what is being done, why the importance is, water tables, and this years potential exposure. They will provide hand outs and safety tips about what to do, where to go and where to tune in. They will discuss prevention, communication and nature. Every year the USDAFS does extensive research in prevention and data collection. This is information everyone should know who lives near forested areas, parks and mountainous area. The can provide the education that may help save the lives of you and your family.
POLICE DEPARTMENTThe Police department will provide a Community Relations person to explain to participants the need to report crimes and what is actually a crime. Arson is a crime, one of the worst possible crimes. The police can explain how to detect suspicious behavior from a potential arsonist. They will explain that if someone cuts you off on the Highway it is an unfortunate situation , but not a crime, and to limit phone calls to important things. Most importantly, they will explain that the participants are the eyes and ears of the Police, not vigilantes. The Police will also ask participants to have the police departments phone number programmed into their cellular phones and to only use the 911 feature for accidents involving arson activity, accident injuries and very serious things. The Police department will also give the certificates to participants once they have completed the seminar, which will be signed by police chief or local Community Relations Officer.
CITY HALLCity Council members will very likely endorse the project at a city council meeting and give a proclamation to the President of The Chamber of Commerce for the Chambers and local businesses service to community. Most cities or towns can allot at least $2,500.00 towards the project for the signage. Donations for the remained can often be obtained large companies in the area. By announcing it at a city council meeting the program will receive the publicity it needs to get quality participants.
MEDIA SUPPORTLocal Radio stations are very supportive of the community. Request that they play public service announcements. Also, you will find that local newspaper will place flyers in the papers to announce the project, local cable stations will tape video of participants covering their jurisdiction, and interview seminar participants.
ORGANIZING CHAIRPERSONThis will be the person who provides the necessary phone calls and keeps all the different groups happy and coordinates the program. It is best to have a prominent volunteer type individual for this, someone who is already known for the community involvement; maybe even sits on a few non-profit boards and municipal committees. Someone everyone likes. The Chairperson will be in charge of making great quotes in the media, organizing participants and volunteers and scheduling meetings. Follow ups, thank you letters and personal invitations. Also keeping track of all the events and making agendas and cooperating with neighboring cities that follow this plan later. Other responsibilities include interfacing with non-profit groups to make sure they can participate, and contacting Board of Realtors, Rotary, Kiwanis, Optimist, Lions, Elks, clubs etc. In short, an ombudsman to council people, Mayor and City Manager.
TARGET COMPANIES TO PARTICIPATEØ Car Wash Guys Franchisee Ø Office Supply Companies
Ø Air-Conditioning Companies Ø Auto Parts Delivery Stores Ø Beverage Companies
Ø Bread Companies
Ø Carpet Cleaning Companies Ø Construction Companies Ø Dominos Pizza Franchisee Ø Flower Companies
Ø Garage Door Installers Ø Landscapers
Ø Local Maid Services
Ø Merry Maids Franchisee Ø Milk Man
Ø Mobile Dog Groomers Ø Painting Companies
Ø Plumbing Companies
Ø Pool Services
Ø Realtors
Ø Screen Mobile Franchise Ø Security Companies
Ø Signage Companies
Ø Snap on Tool Franchisee Ø Snow Removal Companies Ø Soil Testing Companies Ø Title Companies
Ø Tow Companies
Ø Transportation Companies Ø Window Washing Companies
Ø Ambulance Company Ø Bus Company
Ø Cable Company
Ø Telephone Company
Ø Trash and Refuse Company Ø United State Post Office
GOVERNMENT AGENCIES TO ASK TO PARTICIPATE
Ø Animal Control
Ø Code Enforcement Officers Ø College District
Ø Department of Transportation Ø EPA Inspectors
Ø Fire Department
Ø Forestry Department
Ø Military Recruiters
Ø National Guard Armory Ø Park and Recreation District Ø Probation Department Ø Public Works
Ø School District
Ø Storm Water Program Ø Water Treatment Plant Ø Weights and Measures
Let us go through them one by one and discuss the businesses, utility companies and government agencies and what they can offer. Each business due to their industries, labor sources, customers, routes, and hours of operation brings another piece to the puzzle. Please understand nothing in this book is arbitrary. Thousands of hours of conversations, meeting and thoughts have gone into this project. Fire Department Captains, USDAFS Researchers, Law Enforcement personnel and the author have spent considerable time in analyzing these concepts and ideas and have come up with an effective program.
Starting from the beginning:
T HE CAR WASH GUYS: Car Wash Guys wash cars at offices and residences. Their car wash trucks are in and out of parking lots all the time. Their schedules are flexible to meet customer demand; it varies a little each day. Their trucks are bright yellow and attract attention. They are staffed with young men who are always looking for the next car to wash, scanning parking lots. Driving slowly through neighborhoods looking for addresses of car wash customers who call in. There are two or three people looking around while driving around in the car wash truck. They also wash for many fleets in the town and can help with the initial recruitment. Plus, these franchisees are required to be involved in community service projects. If you do not have a franchisee in your area contact corporate to receive more information
S NAP-ON TOOL FRANCHISEE: These franchisees drive vehicles filled with expensive tools and are aware of what someone acts like and body behavior when they are getting ready to steal something, including their own inventory. These trucks have fancy alarms, and are built like fortresses to protect the inventory. They hear things on the street and know who the bad characters are. There franchisees are always willing to participate and know tons of people who will ask them, “What is that sign on your truck for?” Great word of mouth advertising for your program.
A IR CONDITIONING COMPANIES: Heating and Air Conditioning Companies often work for commercial properties on roofs, a great vantage point, and totally unexpected. They have constant communication. Their owners are usually very involved in city and civic affairs. They also work in apartment complexes and have a good vantage point for observation on top of roofs. They are also in residential neighborhoods of middle and upper middle class where people are at work and not around to protect their properties.
R EALTORS: Realtors have a pulse on the community; they know the neighborhoods in the town. Some Real Estate offices grid the town by housing tracts, plus 4 zip code or census blocks and each realtor is in charge of a certain area. They often canvass the area and are on a first name basis with many residences. They know the Home Owners Association directors by name. They also refer and are in contact with painters, pool service companies, landscapers, interior decorators, snow removal companies, window washers, contractors, pool companies, and other various residential companies, which can also serve as part of the volunteer neighborhood watch program. They often tour or caravan with other realtors to look recent listings. In these weekly caravans you might have 4-5 other realtors in the car learning all about the neighborhood arson mobile watch program. Realtors know lots of people and are constantly involved with things around town, their jobs and success depend on it.
P LUMBING COMPANIES: Plumbers are highly paid individuals and tend to know all the income property owners of the town. These property owners are the movers and shakers who are also involved in all the philanthropic and political groups in the towns. Plumbers handle many emergencies and are some of the most randomly scheduled professionals. No one can predict when or where they will show up next, including themselves. A criminal planning an arson hates these types of wild cards. Like locksmiths called out to help with lock out problems, they can be anywhere at any time for anybody. A plumbing company with multiple trucks can be a great asset. A small company with one truck can also have just as many contacts around town. Both large and small plumbing companies will be more than happy to help your program.
S ECURITY COMPANIES: They already are in this line of work and have multiple of vehicles and often employ former police officers, firemen and military personnel. They have communication, scanners, and bright lights. They will be glad to join the program simply for the PR value. This adds numbers to your group. Some security companies have many vehicles and with the signs on the back they are advertising your program on all their cars and receive just as much PR for being involved. We believe this is a great trade and they will also volunteer to help with the program. It is in their best interest to be involved. If your program gets too large they may help your program train new recruits since they probably have former retired sheriffs or police officers on staff or perhaps a local security company is owned by a former police chief.
F LOWER COMPANIES: Usually have delivery vans, which deliver to offices and homes. These vans park in small retail center parking lots at night. This fact helps the center from viability standpoint; it makes the arson scouting out the scene think twice. The owners of Flower Shops are involved in all kinds of things. If your group needs money to buy more Neighborhood Arson Mobile Watch Signs, they would surely have the contact name to get you in the door. No arson would ever suspect a Flower Van to be a mobile watch vehicle.
D OMINOS PIZZA FRANCHISEES: Domino’s founder in building his company always made it a goal of his company to help out the community. For this reason nearly all their franchisees feel obligated to help in good causes. Their franchisees feel a strong commitment towards those ideals and that is one of the reasons that attracted them to the business in the first place. Dominos can be a great asset because on Friday and Saturday nights a single store may many pizzas. You may find that they need a number of signs, two for each car driven on those nights. Dominos Pizza will also put a flyer on top of every box of Pizza they deliver during the initial inauguration of the program. This way you will alert thousands of people at their homes about the new program. Since 10 % of the population are small business owners or self employed you may find that you will hit a couple of hundred more potential mobile watchers. If you do not have a Dominos Pizza Franchisee find another food delivery company or pizza place to help.
M ERRY MAIDS FRANCHISEES: This maid service franchise is part of Service Master and also part of TruGreen-ChemLawn, American Home Inspections, and other residential and commercial service franchises. The Service Master Franchise system’s original Founder, Marion Wade, was quite a great community spirited leader. Although the corporate culture has changed significantly, you find Merry Maids and Service Master franchisees as cooperative, helpful and committed. We have had success with them in the past and they tend to have many crews of cleaners throughout most towns.
L OCAL MAID SERVICES: These small businesses drive around and have scheduled routes for each day of the week. This program is something they will enjoy doing and they will be a very positive influence on the group. Most of these small business owners are very street smart and they know what is going on around town, who is doing what, and can easily spot out suspicious behavior down the street. They will feel very happy to added to your group and have lots of contacts around town.
T ITLE SERVICE COMPANIES: Title services have reps, which drive around all day and deliver documents and collect signatures, mingle with Realtors, and return the information and drop off literature. They will know which Realtors are most likely to want to join the program. A title company may have many reps thus many cars driving around helping the important exposure of the efforts. The title reps are usually GQ type guys and pleasant looking young women and make great people for your photo ops and press release pictures. These reps put on more miles than the police officers on their patrol cars. If you want a JFK looking individual for your press releases now you have one.
P OOL SERVICE COMPANIES: Most of these small business people have many pools on their weekly routes. Some are commercial such as hotels, and apartments, but most are residential, thus bringing them into many neighborhoods each week. They will get a pretty good sense of the areas they work and the kinds of people that live there, this makes it easy for them to spot something out of place. Pool Service companies are great for you program, so find as many of these people as you can.
L ANDSCAPERS: In America where many families have two bread-winners, the landscape business has flourished. It is not uncommon for a landscape company to have many units on the road. In rural areas they may be servicing non-resident properties. With these companies it is better to have stickers than magnets. They will lose magnets and you will have to replace them. They will have both commercial and residential customers, so they will be in shopping centers, business parks, government buildings, parks, golf courses, and housing areas. They are everywhere on a set schedule and very visible. Try to pick the Landscapers with the best image and the nicest and cleanest trucks. Remember they can also help by cutting back vegetation and if they know the serious nature of the problem this year, this maybe a winning combination.
T RANSPORTATION COMPANIES: Look in the phone book. They will take the PR and spread it around their Industry and use the public relations to help their businesses. That is fine because you will now have many units on the road with your signs, driving everywhere. It is said in an election that a bumper sticker is worth the same as $200.00 in print media. Imagine what all these signs are worth in free advertising. When these transportation companies PR themselves in trade journals it may give another community a chance to prevent the catastrophic loss we are in our town. Another plus is that the drivers of all these vehicles are in constant contact with their dispatcher and if they see anything they will call it in. Remember also that the drivers of these vehicles sit up higher than in regular cars and can see over walls and fences, thus another advantage
C ONSTRUCTION COMPANIES: The owners of construction companies will be tough to get to a meeting, but are more than willing to join the team and help with a look out. Construction people are also worried about crime due to materials leaving the job sites, vandalism of job sites and loss of tools out of their trucks. They understand the problems and are more than willing to get in and help anyway they can. They despise arsonists because they are worried about their own projects too. They are a great resource. They tend to be on the streets early in the mornings and can help you with area coverage in early hours. They are always on their way to the coffee shops, materials pick up or picking up workers. They have always been an asset to the Arson Watch Teams.
P AINTING COMPANIES: Are usually run by owner operators and have many accounts from commercial buildings to income properties to residential and each job lasts a few days to a week and then they move to the next job around the town. Of course they run their businesses by cellular phone from the job sites. It pays for them to know lots of people because it is mainly a referral type business. You will be doing them a favor by asking the to participate and they normally will accept with no problem. They understand the nature of referrals to get their next jobs so they will also know how to refer more volunteers to the program.
W INDOW WASHING COMPANIES: These companies work in a very low cost, high volume business and know everybody in town, and certainly nearly every business owner or manager on their routes. At $1-2 per pane, they must do a lot of windows to make money. They leave their vehicles in parking lots all over town for 20 minutes to 2 hours and move on. Some do residential as well. Parking in neighborhoods for the same time periods or longer. They are a great source for flyer distribution to merchants, retailers, etc. If you decide to have a Poster program, they can have those posters up all over town in days on the windows of businesses. Join us; “Neighborhood Arson Watch Program.” It is a good way to build your arson watch program into a neighborhood watch program for those businesses that are not mobile to spread the word.
S NOW REMOVAL COMPANIES: They are driving around and out and about when everyone else in inside and toasty. They are out even when the arsonists are not. But just incase the arsonist does come out in the cold weather your team is still working and helping police with extra eyes. Many times the arsonist will case the place first, they may do this at any time. The police have much more important emergencies to take care of when the weather gets that bad. In the summer time the snow removal companies have other jobs and will also be willing to display the sign. They should have the training anyway in case of vehicle accidents they will see.
G ARAGE DOOR COMPANIES: These companies deliver, install and repair garage doors in neighborhoods. It behooves these companies to participate because neighbors will not think they are stealing when they come to someone’s house if they have the neighborhood Arson Mobile Watch sign on their trucks. So they are very apt to join the program and participate. They rely on referrals from other contractors, and can also help build your program in size and number of units on the road.
S IGNAGE COMPANIES: Since these companies make signs, and are in touch with the highest group of image conscience businesses in town, they can prove to also be a great recruiter of the most quality companies. If they also do vehicle signage then you will find that they have many leads for potential recruits to the program. They may even be inclined to give the program signs at their cost.
S OIL TESTING COMPANIES: Soil companies are out at vacant lots before and during construction as well as closed businesses and vacant buildings doing environmental sampling of soil for potential buyers of properties, banks and planning departments. They may witness stealing of construction materials, graffiti, vandalism and squatters of abandoned buildings. They tend to have many trucks that go out into the field. They can also alert the fire department as to properties that are not maintained and have dry grass build-up or debris that can be potential fuel for fires.
A UTO PARTS COMPANIES: These companies drive around all day to dealerships, auto maintenance facilities, utility companies. They have many drivers, two-way dispatch and cover lots of territories. Their vehicles are driven by young high energy people who can really add excitement to the groups.
M OBILE VETS AND DOG GROOMERS: These business owners are usually small independents and have a sense of community pride. They are in gated communities as well as residential neighborhoods. They know animal people, ranchers, horse owners, animal rescue groups. They park in neighborhoods for hours tending to sick and injured animals or do grooming. They can also assist the group in devising a strategic plan to get the animals out in case of fire and places to keep animals safe and return them to their owners after fires or threats of fires. It pays to plan ahead.
M ILK MAN: These delivery drivers are up early and can easily help cover residential areas in wee hours of the morning and also go to institutional facilities and are happy to help. A typical dairy may have many trucks driving around.
B READ COMPANIES: These delivery drivers are up early and can easily help cover retail business areas in wee hours of the morning and also go to institutional facilities and are happy to help. Their product pick-up areas are in Industrial areas or lower income areas for the most part and since they start at 3:30-4:00 am in the morning they can also be a look out in those areas of your city. They deliver behind grocery stores, C-stores, General Stores and businesses all day until about one to two pm. Their varied schedule makes them perfect candidates for our program.
B EVERAGE DISTRIBUTION COMPANIES: These beverage companies go to gas stations, mini-marts, grocery stores, c-stores, bars, institutions, and are usually involved with all types of community activities; fairs, events, schools, etc. They need to remain in a positive light with local public relations. Many times their leadership of their company is involved in local service clubs, and chamber of commerce committees and non-profit kids groups on the board of directors. They maybe a source of on going funding for meetings and signage.
C ARPET CLEANING COMPANIES: There are many carpet-cleaning companies, both franchisees and independents, and all of them should be in the program. You can use this to your advantage. Sign up one company and use it to try to sign up the rest of them. If every van which cleans carpets has a sign then there will not be a day when any given neighborhood goes without at least one visit from a member of the Neighborhood Arson Mobile Watch Program.
S CREEN MOBILE FRANCHISEES: The Founder of The Screen Mobile Franchise System has reviewed this plan and has agreed to have his franchisees participate. It is a close-knit group and will be very easy to recruit them and have them recruit their industry contacts in construction, interior decorating and local window cleaners. Check to see if this franchise is represented in your area, if not it is a good franchise so tell a friend about it and add it to your group.
T OW COMPANIES: Tow companies are very well connected directly into the police department’s, ambulance’s and fire department’s radio system, they have scanners and are listening to things like getaways and hit and runs and just might see that bad guy fly by. They can also help because they are 24 hours, 7 days a week service. And they are very visible.
U NITED STATES POST OFFICE: Normally the USPS will not put stickers on their LLVs (Long Life Vehicles) but the contract carriers who deliver the mail to their post office will. Also think about the number of mail vehicles? They will participate and you can have your local community police person, fire department or USDAFS representative contact the postmaster and set up a 30 minute meeting to explain to the carriers the importance of the program and then these mail carriers will become your stealth group. No one knows they are in the program but you. And they cover the whole city every work day. Most mail carriers now carry cell phones.