Members of the Rogers Circle community met Thursday night at Mt. Wade Baptist Church to organize a Neighborhood Watch program.

     Krysten Butler, a deputy sheriff and leader of the Lincoln County Neighborhood Watch affiliate, handed out packets and instructed citizens on the methods of starting such a group.

     “Y’all can be as big of help to us as we can be to you because we can’t be everywhere,” Butler said during the meeting.

     Butler emphasized an initial need for a defined area from which the program would be run, followed by the need for designated captains to lead the program.

     The number of needed captains depends on the size of the group.

     Butler also encouraged the utilization of social networks such as Facebook to alert members of suspicious activity taking place within the community.

     “We want y’all to be really, really nosey,” she said. “Peek out your windows, look out your door and know what’s going on around you.”

     Butler spoke about the advantages of having a well-organized watch program within the neighborhood.

     “I can’t tell you 100 percent you will never have crime with neighborhood watch,” she said. “But I will tell you it’s less likely.”

     Ward Six Alderman David Phillips also stated intentions of creating a “code enforcement officer” to monitor blight and deteriorating houses that could cause a decrease in property value within the neighborhood.

     “We are trying to hit the medium between being too restrictive or too lenient,” Phillips said during his time at the podium. “We don’t want to be the Gestapo here.”

     Brookhaven Police Chief Pap Henderson advised citizens Thursday night not to take action into their own hands and to alert the BPD at the first sign of a problem. Henderson also iterated the need for full cooperation of everyone in the community in the effort to deter crime.  

     “We are all going to work together for one common thing,” Henderson said. “Law and order.”

     Also in attendance was Sheriff Steve Rushing, Alderman at Large Karen Sullivan and Assistant Police Chief Bobby Bell.