Members of law enforcement attended the second Bloomingdale neighborhood watch meeting earlier this month.
(Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

BLOOMINGDALE — The Bloomingdale neighborhood watch group is formalizing as it prepares to officially launch. Members are getting advice from law enforcement about reporting suspected crimes and separating the group from the town government.

Saranac Lake Police Chief Darin Perrotte, Essex County Sheriff Sgt. Thomas Forbes and New York State Police Trooper Trevor Symonds were at the group’s second meeting on Jan. 16 to give advice to the attendees.

St. Armand Town Supervisor Davina Thurston had one major question for them: “What can we do to help you do your jobs?”

Forbes said it’s all about community observance — recognizing things that don’t look right and reporting them.

“Everybody plays a part in the public safety of the community,” Perrotte said.

The police officers all emphasized that a neighborhood watch group is not about vigilantism, despite the group’s many jokes about it. They said a group like this is meant to be the eyes and ears for the police. They rely on the public to let them know about crime, Perrotte said.

The St. Armand town board began holding meetings on a neighborhood watch as residents say they’ve seen an increase in crime over the past year.

Thurston said it came from a “culmination” of issues and complaints around town — public drug use, vehicle and home break-ins, burning garbage, Christmas gifts stolen from mailboxes, stolen town signs and trespassing.

Thurston pins the blame on drug addiction. Drugs change people, she said. She understands the struggles of addiction, but said Bloomingdale is a family place and they intend to keep it that way.

The group is creating a network of vetted volunteers to report suspected crime, and has decided to filter information to law enforcement through a chairperson — multiple chairpeople, actually, to have more than one contact point.

Town Councilman JP O’Neil was worried about overloading them with calls. That already happens, Forbes said. Their job is to sift through all the information and figure out what’s important, Perrotte said. He added that it’s better to err on the side of caution — to report something that didn’t matter than to not report something that mattered.

They might know a house has a meth lab, but it takes a while to build a narcotics case. If someone from the community provides information that the police doesn’t have, that one detail could push an investigation over the edge, Perrotte said.

The SLPD has a camera registry, a database of homes with doorbell, trail or security cameras they can use to search for footage if there’s a reported crime. Perrotte said Bloomingdale residents can register their cameras in this database. The SLPD also accepts anonymous tips on its Crimewatch website. He also said Bloomingdale residents should call NYSP, not the village for emergencies.

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Private

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The members of the public at the meeting decided to move these neighborhood watch meetings away from town board meetings and toward community meetings for two reasons — it gives them more privacy to talk, and it keeps the town board out of the group.

There was a bit of debate over how involved town officials should be in the group. Eventually, they settled on not at all.

O’Neil was adamant that the public should run the group, not the board. Thurston wanted to be on the neighborhood watch.

Bloomingdale resident Joe Fisher said this could pose a conflict of interests, complicating things for her, the group and the board.

Thurston said she was struggling with this. Several of these incidents have taken place on town property and she’s received death threats over her responses to them. Its personal for her.

Fisher said this is even more reason she should let the public run the group. It would be hard for her to not speak for the board. And they want to keep the town safe from liability which could be caused by running the neighborhood watch group. Fisher said she should lead from the town, not from the watch group.

“I’m going to defer to the group and say this makes sense, even though I don’t like it,” Thurston said.

They agreed to have town Councilman Karl Law as a liaison between the board and the group, but he would not speak for the board.

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Limitations

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Bloomingdale resident Scott Gibson asked if anything can be done through code enforcement to go after problem properties.

The town has new water and sewer regulations making it illegal to live in a camper without access to water and sewer infrastructure. But code enforcement takes time, Thurston said.

In September, Thurston said there was a person who was found sleeping in the pirate ship after doing drugs inside the play area. Since kids crawl all over the ship, the town had it deep-cleaned. She said it wasn’t the first time this happened. They thought about closing the pirate ship, but decided to form a neighborhood watch instead.

The town has cameras installed all over the youth field and monitors them regularly. It also has signs at the field saying “no trespassing, dusk to dawn.”

However, State Police cannot enforce local laws. The county sheriff’s department can. Symonds suggested hiring a constable, usually a retired law enforcement officer, to enforce those laws regularly.

Thurston said they looked into this, but it was too expensive for the town.

There’s not a lot of law enforcement in the area — only the State Police and, to a lesser extent, the Essex County Sheriffs. Residents said it can take 30 to 60 minutes for police to get there.

Bloomingdale was a village until 1985. Now it is a hamlet and cannot have a police force. The town of St. Armand absorbed Bloomingdale’s services in 1985, but does not have a local police force.

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Self-defense

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Several members of the public asked about their self-defense rights if someone tries breaking into their home or they catch them in the act of committing a crime. Law enforcement urged members of the public to not confront anyone and call the police instead. This is for two reasons — safety and liability. They warned against escalating a situation into violence.

“Everything’s replaceable. That’s why you pay insurance. … Your life’s not,” Forbes said.

They said self-defense in New York is a large “gray area.” New York is a “duty to retreat” state, meaning victims of a crime should leave the scene and not fight, unless their life itself is in imminent danger.

Forbes said there’s a fine line between being a victim and becoming a criminal. Perrotte said if use of force by a civilian is justified depends largely on the judge and details of the case.

The details of New York’s self-defense laws can be found in Article 35 of the state penal law at tinyurl.com/8eevvceh.

Perrotte told them to “be a good witness” — to be aware of their surroundings with details to tell dispatchers and to not wait to report a crime. Forbes said it’s all about the details, details, details.

The neighborhood watch will meet next at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the St. Armand Town Hall.