At about 58 square miles, 256 miles of roads, and home to more than 5,000 people, West Penn Township is a sprawling rural community of lifelong residents and a growing number of newcomers.

The West Penn Township Neighborhood Crime Watch’s goal is to help them - and their neighbors - learn how to stay safe.

The group has been in existence for years, and is now poised to grow and develop along with the community’s changes.

“Crime Watch is for information gathering and safety education. We’re here to help the community and the police department,” said Crime Watch president Connor J. Evans.

Evans, of New Ringgold, was elected in January. He’s also the township’s Emergency Management Coordinator and assistant chief of the fire company.

Tina E. Dougherty, also of New Ringgold, serves as vice president.

Officer Kai Apel is the police department’s Crime Watch liaison

One recent day, Evans and Dougherty sat in the office of township Police Chief Jim Bonner, chatting about Crime Watch’s role in the community.

It’s to teach safety and be on top of residents’ concerns.

Emergencies

It is not for reporting crimes, especially emergencies.

Bonner emphasized that if people see someone breaking into a building, stealing a car, or committing an act of violence, they should call 911 and not the police station’s non-emergency number or Crime Watch.

He said the group is a valuable resource, especially since his team of two full time and six part time officers is stretched thin as they serve and protect their residents.

“We average 10 to 20 calls a day,” he said.

The township fans out north and south of routes 895 and 443, and east and west of Route 309.

For Bonner, the increasingly heavy traffic is a major concern because his officers are kept busy dealing with

crashes, speeding, impaired driving, drivers without licenses, insurance, or registrations, and stolen vehicles.

Many of those stops lead to drug charges.

Most complaints are about speeding vehicles,” he said. I get a lot of complaints about traffic.”

His officers use license plate readers to alert them to vehicles that have been stolen, have insurance cancellations, or aren’t registered.

”We have a lot of people coming through our area with no insurance,” Bonner said. “Nine out of 10 times, not only are they not insured, but the driver’s license has been suspended as well. Or wanted.”

Evans worries about that traffic bringing drugs and bad people through the rural community.

Drug traffic

“The biggest concern from what I see right now, with West Penn being as large as it is, is that there’s a lot of drug trafficking going on throughout the township,” he said. “Especially since we’re in such proximity to Hazleton, Allentown, and Reading. If it’s going north or south, it comes right through West Penn Township.

That brings more crime into the area - people moving in and creating halfway points,” Evans said.

“A lot of new people are moving into the township. Most are good, but there are a few bad eggs,” he said.

Break-ins tend to happen in the spring and summer, and often in homes whose owners are part-time residents, Evans said.

Dougherty has been a Crime Watch member for about 18 months, and vice president for about eight months.

She joined because she wanted to learn more about safety, and now, to teach her neighbors how to be safer and “what they can do to make it safe for all of us.”

Evans joined to be able to make the organization stronger, and involve more local agencies.

He also wants to grow the group, and reach out to residents to “bring neighbors closer together.”

“There are over 5,000 people who live in the township, and only about five people concerned” enough to join the Crime Watch, he said.

“Part of the problem is that people now tend to stay inside and focus on their electronics instead of being out and interacting with their neighbors,” Evans said.

The Crime Watch, he hopes, “will bring out the older generation and the younger generation to come and meet and discuss things. Hopefully open their eyes to see things that are going on in their township that they might not realize is a good or even a bad thing.”

Dougherty advises people to watch your neighbor’s homes, watch your surroundings, be alert when you leave your car to go into a store.

Bonner said the group will also teach people about security lighting, keeping trees and shrubbery trimmed so as not to afford hiding places, having an emergency plan, and other safety procedures.

His officers will attend meetings to teach safety procedures.

‘Throughout the year, we’ll have different programs that will teach people these things,” he said.

Both Evans and Dougherty are dedicated to teaching residents how to keep themselves and their neighborhoods safer.

That includes keeping the group’s quarterly meetings on track and focused.

“Our goal as the police department is to educate people on knowing what is a particular crime and what to watch for,” Bonner said.

Another crucial aspect is teaching people when to call 911.

“We have a lot of situations where somebody would leave a message on our answering machine here at the office at 2 a.m. on a Friday morning saying someone’s breaking into their neighbor’s house,” Bonner said. “My officers are out on the road, patrolling, and when we check the messages at 6 in the morning, it’s holy smokes! That was four hours ago!”

If a cat is stuck in a tree, or for other non-emergency situations, by all means call the non-emergency number, he said.

Report concerns, not crimes, to Crime Watch, he said.

The more people who join, the more eyes are out there, watching.

How to connect:

West Penn Township Neighborhood Crime Watch can be reached through its Facebook page, by calling the police station’s non-emergency number, 570-386-1100, or through the group’s tip line email address, westpenntownshipcrimewatch@gmail.com.

The Crime Watch meets next at 7 p.m. April 20 at the West Penn Township Volunteer Fire Co. station on Municipal Road.