Inwood Community Watch convenes again

Inwood’s Community Watch group — which aims to address community concerns and keep Inwood clean and safe — will resume in-person meetings next month at the Five Towns Community Center after a nearly 2-year pause due to Covid. 

The Community Watch group consists of nearly 50 Inwood residents who keep watch of the community and voice their concerns to the police, the fire department, sanitation or any laws or regulations enforcement group.    

The watch group is mainly concerned with the dumping of trash, abandoned cars, prostitution and trafficking, package and catalytic converter theft, drag racing, drug dealers, speeding vehicles, including motorcycles, unlicensed ATVs and other quality of life issues such as loud noise.

Group members are observant of their surroundings, whether they hear a suspicious noise outside of their window or see something unusual while driving home from work.

“Its kind of like — everybody all the time, we keep our eyes open,” Inwood resident Sasha Young said, adding that “the teens have played a big part,” in observing the community because they are out in it most. “We try to get someone within every few blocks so that we can keep, you know, a pretty good idea of what's going on.”

Recruiting for Community Watch is done through Facebook and community groups, such as Inwood Lawrence Community News, and word of mouth at Gammy’s Pantry. Young is the director of the community pantry that distributes, food, clothes and other necessary items at the Community Center.

The watch group typically meets monthly at the Community Center at 270 Lawrence Ave. in Lawrence, but the last meeting was in October 2020 due to Covid. During that meeting, the 4th Precinct came to discuss community issues, the same that stand today, with the nearly 30 previous members. 

“Now that we're open after Covid, we'll have a nice in-person meeting so we can eat and hang out and just get people, you know, back on the same page,” Young said. The next meeting is on Aug. 2.

The group doesn’t just speak once monthly.” It’s very quick to be able to communicate what's going on (in) real-time,” through social media and instant messaging, Young said.

Young posts a lot of Community Watch information on her personal Facebook page and on the Gammy’s Pantry page, Community Watch member Jennifer Weisel, a Cedarhurst resident, said. “We notify the community about what’s going on to try and stop the crime,” Weisel said, adding that the group tries to post as much as they can online to keep each other informed. 

Though the watch group adds security to the community, it is still not enough, Weisel said. “I guess the crime rate is just so high right now,” she said. “I mean I feel like things have gotten a little bit better, but it's still too much.” 

A lot of Community Watch members are also part of the Youth Advocacy Group, made up of roughly 50 members who discuss community concerns monthly with the 4th Precinct to better the community for families.

Young, the Town of Hempstead’s 3rd district representative to the Nassau County Police Department, said her mother, Valerie Waldo Hooper, an Inwood resident for nearly two decades, unintentionally started the watch group before moving out of Inwood four years ago. 

She, “liked to keep everything sort of in order,” Young said. After Hooper moved to West Virginia, we just kind of stepped into the role,” Young said, adding that her mother was, “nosy,” for a good reason, and “in everybody's business. Just trying to keep our neighborhood safe.”

To join Inwood’s Community Watch group, email gammyspantry@gmail.com or syoung@fivetownsmail.org.