ROGERS -- Police and Hispanic business owners plan to create a business watch -- a group similar to a neighborhood watch but with business owners -- to prevent commercial burglaries along South Eighth Street.
"Now we are working together," said Arturo Rodriguez, an owner of Hollywood Signs & Printing. "If those guys see that we are working together, and we are protecting each other, and we are working with the police -- things are going to change."
Fast Fact
The National Crime Prevention Council
The National Crime Prevention Council started in 1982 to oversee the National Citizens’ Crime Prevention Campaign and McGruff the Crime Dog, and to administer the Crime Prevention Coalition of America. Business watch programs deter crime, according to the group.
Source: Staff Report
The business watch would be the first of its kind in Rogers, said Geovanny Sarmiento, vice president of minority business development at the Rogers-Lowell Area Chamber of Commerce.
"Everybody can look out for each other," Sarmiento said.
Police recently met with Hispanic business owners at their places of business to talk about concerns brought up because of burglaries this year and last year. Rodriguez brought up the issue during a community outreach meeting in May.
After talking with different owners, police increased night patrols and looked at creating a business watch, said Keith Foster, police spokesman. The business watch would be modeled on recommendations by the National Crime Prevention Council, a group that advocates crime prevention, he said.
Business owners could learn prevention techniques and what to do when they see suspicious activity, according to the group's website. Foster said Friday he talked to Sarmiento and Rodriguez about the idea.
Discussions on a business watch started about three weeks ago, Sarmiento said. Police and business owners plan to hold a large meeting, he said. No date has yet been set, but business owners are optimistic, Sarmiento said.
Rodriguez said a watch is necessary to protect businesses, which contribute financially to the city of Rogers.
Police records showed there were about 12 commercial burglaries through May of this year, with five along South Eighth Street. Information on more recent burglaries wasn't available Friday, police said.
Rodriguez said police made at least one arrest in connection with the Eighth Street burglaries, and no businesses he knew of had been burglarized or robbed in the past two months.
Similar watch programs have been successful in preventing crime and lowering burglary rates, Sarmiento said.
The idea sounds proactive and inclusive, said Rey Hernandez, president of the Northwest Arkansas chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens and a Benton County justice of the peace.
"This is just another kind of step that you would expect from a progressive area like (Rogers)," Hernandez said.
Even so, Hernandez said police and residents should be careful. The business watch shouldn't allow members to carry guns and shouldn't put residents in danger, Hernandez said. Any watch should include training so business owners know what information police need to stop or solve crime, he said.
"You don't want to go into 'OK, how do you stop a crime?'" he said. "That's what the Police Department gets paid for. Just report what you see, and let the police take care of it."
NW News on 09/13/2014