Volunteers look out for their neighbors in East Meadow

They’re the eyes and ears of the police.

They drive their own cars. They look for, and report, suspicious activity. But they don’t carry weapons or handcuffs. They don’t make arrests. In fact, they are advised not to get involved, and to avoid interacting with potential criminals.

Yet as volunteers for the East Meadow Civilian Patrol, their role is a crucial tool in aiding police officers in the fight against crime. “We’re not vigilantes,” said Legislator Norma Gonsalves, who founded the program in 1986. “We are the blankets against crime.”

East Meadow is celebrating the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Civilian Patrol, the centerpiece of the Council of East Meadow Community Organizations’ Crime Watch Eyes Around the Clock program. The program began with about 50 volunteers. At the time, drug use, burglaries and vandalism were rampant. Concerned citizens packed CEMCO meetings to voice their concerns. Then they decided to take action.

“We wanted to take matters into our own hands,” Gonsalves said. 

A laundry room in the nurses’ quarters at the Nassau University Medical Center served as the base station for the Civilian Patrol. During each day or night shift, at least one dispatcher manned the station while others patrolled the streets in assigned units.

“Little funds were needed to maintain our gorgeous office,” joked Dr. Steve Perrick, who volunteered as a dispatcher on Tuesday nights for about 10 years. “It was nothing more than an old desk, a CB radio and probably a rotary phone.”

If a volunteer out on patrol spotted something suspicious, he or she radioed back to the dispatcher, who took the appropriate action. Certain situations warranted 911 calls, while others simply needed to be documented and reported to the authorities.

Tom Geist was another original volunteer who drove the streets during assigned shifts. He recalled keeping watch for unruly behavior by teens, and reporting a series of acts of vandalism around town. “We just used to be all over the place,” Geist said. “It was a lot of fun. And we kept things under control.”

Late one night in the early days of the patrol, Geist recounted, he and his partner saw suspicious vehicles in a shopping center parking lot. But the gathering wasn’t what they thought. “We called it in,” Geist remembered, “and it happened to be a stakeout by police.” 

But to Geist and his fellow Civilian Patrol volunteers, anything that looked even mildly suspicion was worth looking into. “We would check everything,” he said. “It was a constant workout down the roads.”

The proliferation of cell phones eventually eliminated the need for a dispatcher, and the ranks of volunteers have shrunk somewhat over the years, but the patrol remains active and out on the village’s roads. On-duty vehicles sport rectangular magnetic stickers that read “Civilian Patrol.”

Gonsalves, now a seasoned veteran of the volunteer force, recently took a Herald reporter on a morning tour through Section No. 4, a small portion of the Nassau County Police Department’s 1st Precinct, south of Hempstead Turnpike and north of North Jerusalem Road. It was just before lunch, and the streets were quiet. Too quiet … which makes the patrol’s day tours as important as those at night. “Most incidents are happening during the day,” Gonsalves said.

Crime was not an issue during this particular tour, as Gonsalves drove her Chrysler sedan slowly through the neighborhood. She made note of a large tree branch lying on a street near Barnum Woods Elementary School, a potential hazard for drivers. On a usually quiet block nearby, a taxicab was parked oddly, jutting out into the middle of the street. The reporter, riding shotgun, identified himself as a Civilian Patrol member to a neighbor and asked if the man knew who the vehicle belonged to. The cab, he was told, belonged to one of the neighbors.

A woman walking her dog watched the slowly moving car with a puzzled look. Gonsalves explained that she was with the Civilian Patrol. “Thank you,” the woman said.

CEMCO’s next meeting, on March 23 at 7 p.m. in the East Meadow Public Library, is open to the public and will focus on public safety. Representatives from the NCPD’s 1st, 3rd and 8th Precincts are expected to attend. To learn more about Civilian Patrol and the Neighborhood Watch program or to volunteer, attend the meeting or call (516) 359-4269.