By Cindy Wolff
The Commercial Appeal
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Some days it’s shoplifting, theft from a car, theft of a car.
Prostitutes, sex offenders, aggravated assaulters make appearances every now and then.
Each morning, about 5,000 people in the Memphis area open their e-mails to find out about miscreants who lurk and prey in their neighborhoods.
It’s part of a crime-fighting tool launched last year by the Memphis Police Department called CyberWatch.
Ten neighborhood associations initially began using the program in June. It became available to the public two months later.
Police have received close to 300 tips, including 88 drug tips, from people using links on their CyberWatch alert.
The program sorts and mines police reports to create free custom e-mails that list crimes up to a 3-mile radius from a subscriber’s home.
Click on a case and a Google map pops up, pinpointing where something got stolen or where a sex offender lives. Mug shots of those with outstanding warrants appear in a printable poster ready to be tacked to a community bulletin board.
Lynda Whalen said she nearly had a heart attack when she began getting reports for the Burlington Area Neighborhood Association, which is partially in Hickory Hill.
“When I calmed down, I realized that there were specific streets where the crime was happening,” said Whalen, who says people roll their eyes when she starts her “we the people” speech.
“This is our neighborhood. People may want to shut their doors, close their curtains and buy into that ‘Hickory Hood’ mentality, but not me. People talk about taking back their streets. We never lost them.”
She prints out the “Wanted” posters and takes them to people in her community who keep their eyes on everything.
Because of CyberWatch, she knows what time of day purse snatchers are in the Best Buy parking lot or thieves are breaking car windows at Target.
John Harvey, who retired as a lieutenant after 31 years with the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office, created CyberWatch as a technical consultant for MPD, after building a massive database for law enforcement several years ago that included not only up-to-date police and court information, but almost every kind of public record he could find.
Harvey and Memphis Police Director Larry Godwin wanted average citizens to have access to the data too, just not the private or investigative information.
Godwin said CyberWatch has been an incredible tool and a good way to reach out to citizens.
“They can click on each case and send an e-mail straight to an investigator with their tips. It helps citizens be better prepared and spreads information out that may lead to us catching someone.”
Plans for CyberWatch include a Web forum for neighborhood watch groups and a map of Shelby County that citizens can click to access crime reports areas outside of Memphis.
Harvey gets an average of 25 requests a day from citizens to sign up to CyberWatch. Christina Williams sent one of them.
Williams used to watch barely dressed prostitutes work the afternoon rush hour at Lamar and Winchester, waving johns onto Clearpool Circle. Truck drivers pulled over to make quick deals with drug dealers.
Clearpool is a narrow residential street lined with brick or siding homes and yards that are overgrown or edged and tidy. There are carports, mature trees, camper trailers, still-hanging Christmas lights and a constant whir of 18-wheeled trucks blazing down Lamar.
Williams said most of her neighbors are thoughtful, caring and quiet. They just needed the prostitutes, drug dealers - and their customers - to leave them alone.
“I couldn’t go outside with my son because they would be there,” Williams said. “Johns pulled their cars over and parked in my yard.”
She registered for CyberWatch and began sending tips. They e-mailed back or called to get more information.
What were the prostitutes wearing?
What was the make, model and license plate of the pimps’ cars?
Soon after, Blue Crush and the vice squad started arresting.
Williams and other neighbors began memorizing faces on warrant posters. If they saw someone, they called it in.
The criminals began disappearing from the neighborhood.
“It’s quiet here now,” Williams said. “I can go outside with my son and not have someone hit on me.”
Copyright 2008 The Commercial Appeal