Lonoke Residents Fight Increased Crime With Neighborhood Watch

The Lonoke County Sheriff's Department gave Today's THV copies of police reports on everything from broken mail boxes to break-ins, stolen electronics, jewelry and credit cards. That's why neighbors off Mount Tabor Road in Lonoke have teamed up to keep an eye out for trouble.

Dawn Jancaitis and Doddi Pipkin stroll the neighborhood taking note of any suspicious activity as co-founders of the Triple J Neighborhood Watch.

Jancaitis explains, "We started passing out flyers to the entire neighborhood and it's more or less to bring the safety back."

Jancaitis says there are three subdivisions affected by a variety of crimes, "Someone was in my front garden trying to look in my front windows, once the dogs barked and I hit the security alarm the person took off. I could see they knocked things over in my front garden."

There are other accounts of attempted break-ins while women have been home, but Jancaitis says dozens of crimes haven't been reported.

Sergeant Branden Hampton adds, "It's not getting reported because people think we can't do anything about it, but they need to report it so we have the information and we know where our problem areas in the county so we can start increasing patrols."

Lonoke County Patrol Sergeant Hampton says they've made some progress, but are still working on other leads. He continues, "Two suspects that we have in the area have been arrested on residential burglary, theft of property, breaking and entering. Both the subjects are juveniles."

"The group that we're concerned with now is the older age that's going through here," Jancaitis adds.

That's why Friday night officers are starting random foot patrols. "We try to stay in shadowed areas where we're not visible. We'll go through people's backyards, side streets and try to catch people walking around up to no good," Sergeant Hampton explains.

Jancaitis says neighbors will patrol day and night until everyone's caught, "We need to take that security back."

The neighborhood watch plans to have classes on defense, concealed carry laws and teach kids about safety.

Sergeant Hampton says the best deterrents are lights and locked doors because most criminals are looking for crimes of opportunity.