‘There’s safety in numbers’: South Lincoln neighbors work together to stop crime

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – In the past few months, Lincoln has been rattled by crime, causing more people to join neighborhood watch groups.

Regina Thompson is the neighborhood watch commander for her cul-de-sac in the Southern Hills neighborhoods.

She joined the group after someone tried to break into her old house.

Since then, she’s kept a close eye on her neighborhood, making sure no one has an opportunity of to commit crime.

“The first thing they taught us was in a crime, if you want to be in crime prevention, there’s the criminal, there’s the crime, there’s the valuable, and then there’s the opportunity,” Thompson said. “Neighborhood watch is the education to eliminate the opportunity.”

Thompson thinks being prepared for crimes will deter crooks and give police officers more time to solve bigger problems.

“You can’t be everywhere, even if you have three times the officers,” Thompson said. “That’s what neighborhood watch is. You are the eyes and ears of your neighborhood to share with the officers.”

To help protect her neighborhood, she makes sure she knows all of her neighbors.

One of her neighbors told her she felt safe knowing Thompson was right across the street.

“She knew the dog we kept, we knew her dog,” Thompson said. “If you have made that point to know each other, whether you talk to them, you go out to dinner, or you really just kind of know them, there’s safety in numbers. And there’s safety in knowing.”

The neighborhood works together by making sure one another’s garage doors are closed, looking for suspicious cars and reminding people to lock their doors.

Thompson even sends out a quarterly email to the neighborhood filled with updates and safety reminders.