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Police invite the public to attend event

ELKINS — The initial Community Watch meeting for First Ward in Elkins is set for Wednesday.

Elkins Police Department officers will lead the meeting, set for 6 p.m. Wednesday at Jennings Randolph Elementary School.

“We’ll be waiting at the door,” Elkins Police Chief Glenn Galloway said. “We’d like to have as many people turn out as possible. We welcome the people from First Ward to attend, and anyone else who would like to show up.

“We just want to bring the community into contact with the police force, so they can get to know us.”

Galloway said a variety of information will be shared at the meeting.

“There will also be some trainings on how to report information and so forth,” he said.

“We hope to have regular meetings. We just want to communicate with the public and work together to improve the community,” the chief said.

Galloway outlined plans for his proposed Elkins City Police Department/Community Ward Watch Program during the June Elkins Public Safety Committee meeting.

“Since I’ve came here — it’s been almost a year now — we’ve been talking about setting up a neighborhood crime watch and I think the previous chief was in the process of setting up one and, for whatever reason, it didn’t happen so we are going to try to set one up here,” Galloway said.

He went on to explain that officers would be assigned to do increased patrols within certain wards throughout the city.

“Watch areas will be divided up by the five wards within the city, and a separate downtown section,” Galloway explained. “Two Elkins Police Department officers will be assigned to each ward unless only one is available due to manpower.”

About 20 residents attended the initial start-up Community Watch meeting for Fourth Ward and Fifth Ward at Elkins City Hall on Nov. 20.

Four Elkins Police Department officers led the meeting, providing information on the program and gathering feedback.

“This is not going to be a ‘civilians on patrol’ type of watch, where residents are actively walking and driving through the neighborhood patrolling,” said Patrolman K.A. Shiflett.

“This is going to be a community watch, which is pretty much neighbors helping neighbors.”

Shiflett said Community Watch participants will be asked to document suspicious and possibly criminal activity — by writing down license plate numbers and car descriptions, for example — and report it to the EPD.

Two officers will be assigned to each ward to communicate with residents, Shiflett said.

Each ward will have a citizen watch commander, a resident who will have to undergo “a full background investigation” and be interviewed by officers, Shiflett said.

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