Bill Chisham of the SWNW (2nd from left) is the 2009 recipient of
the Elk of the Year Award from the Saratoga Wilton Elks Club. One of the
reasons Bob was chosen for the award was the exhaustive work he has done for the
South West Neighborhood Association's Neighborhood Watch Program. Also
pictured left to right are Andy George (SWNW), Public Safety Commissioner Ron
Kim, Chief Ed Moore and Lt. Bob Jillson.
In 2008, Patrol Division Lieutenant Robert Jillson and Sergeant Jason Tetu
were designated responsibility to coordinate our department’s efforts in the
community relations function. Both have authority to delegate to different
units, according to specialty, assignments to meet the public requests and
complete the department’s mission in crime prevention and community relations.
One of the major developments to report for 2008 is the establishment of a new
Neighborhood Watch program in the city. Two Neighborhood Watch Groups have
been formed; the South West Neighborhood Watch and the Stonequist Neighborhood
Watch. The South West Neighborhood Watch (SWNW) includes five
neighborhoods with more than 1,500 homes represented, while the Stonequist
program covers the entire adult high rise complex located at Stonequist
Apartments high rise. These watch groups are run entirely by citizens
living in the community. Lt. Jillson and Sgt. Tetu assisted the citizens in
creating structured watch groups with establishing zones, leadership, lines of
communication, and provided training to watch group members. To date, more
than one hundred fifty (150) persons have received training in Neighborhood
Watch and crime prevention topics.
In an effort to expand the Neighborhood Watch program, Lt. Jillson and Sgt. Tetu have made
contact with and attended meetings of an additional twelve civic/neighborhood
groups, making presentations about the program as well as the services our
agency has to offer their groups and how they can help the police department in
maintaining our safe community.
Lt. Jillson and Sgt. Tetu also joined the New York State Crime Prevention
Coalition to enhance the department’s networking ability in crime prevention.
Both have attended training programs relative to their assignment, and recently
hosted the state wide training program on crime prevention in
our city in late March of 2009.
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