The Crime Watchers

I was in my early 40s, living in Miami, when my best friend’s 12-year-old daughter and her close friend were sexually assaulted while trick-or-treating one Halloween night. It happened behind a bush a few houses from my friend’s home, only a short distance from my own. The shock of this event turned to heartbreak, then to sadness, and then, finally, to anger. It should never have happened. I became determined to keep it from happening again.

I learned the police can’t post a cop on every street corner. I knew I couldn’t sit on the sidelines. Other women, ordinary housewives like me, felt exactly the same way. We banded together … and this is our story.

The concept of Crime Watch united ordinary citizens to keep neighborhoods safe. This has made a lasting impression on our communities across the country and now even the world.

The individual citizen’s responsibility for a better world is spreading to our young people. Youth Crime Watch of America has touched a million young lives worldwide, including those in as many as 1,500 programs in 43 states in the USA. The Youth Crime Watch format has become an international movement, with communities in more than a dozen countries adopting the program.

All of this didn’t just happen. Youth Crime Watch has wide roots. Many incredible people and organizations laid the groundwork for us.

It’s important to recognize those early volunteers who gave their time, sweat and energy. They were true heroes. Today we salute the young people and their advisors around the world who carry the flag forward as they continue to build safe communities through the Florida-born Youth Crime Watch concept. They are the young heroes today.

From the time I was 9, I felt I had a mission – a deep yearning to do something to improve the lives of others, if only in some small way. World War II was blazing. The Nazis were storming across Europe. The fierce Japanese war machine was mercilessly swallowing up Asia and the Pacific. With a little girl’s passion, I wanted to be a part of the solution, so I asked God to find some way for me to help – a mission, I suppose – and to give me direction. I repeated that prayer almost continually in my life.

This book recounts my personal journey, but it is about celebrating all the heroes of the Crime Watch and Youth Crime Watch programs and their dedicated work. Hopefully my story provides a framework to enable others to appreciate the outstanding achievements of these individuals.

I never became Joan of Arc, or Louis Pasteur, or George Washington. But if God in some small way enabled my partners and me to inspire others, especially young people, to take responsibility for improving their lives, communities, neighborhoods and schools, then I must say, “God, you have answered my prayer.”

And then, with a glint in my eye, I look up and continue, “And one more thing, Lord. It was really a thrill of a lifetime!”

In God have I put my trust; I will not be afraid.

Psalm 56: 11