Helping Hands: Neighbors on Watch

One night in a Vancouver grocery store parking lot, Tom Kent and his wife, Jan, sat in their car observing their surroundings. As they watched people coming and going, they noticed some drivers parked but did not exit their cars or enter the store. Together, they came up with possible plausible explanations of why someone would stop in a grocery store parking lot if they didn’t need to shop. The Kents had been taught this exercise during a special training focused on observing what is out of place and why—part of becoming Neighbors on Watch (NOW) volunteers with the Vancouver Police Department (VPD). A core principle of NOW training teaches that there are no suspicious persons, only suspicious behaviors. The exercise the Kents were taught is meant to challenge their observation skills. As they took turns writing down vehicle descriptions, they noticed two vehicles do a driver-to-driver hand off, then one car quickly left. This was exactly the kind of suspicious behavior they were on the watch for. “We called it in to our dispatch, giving them vehicle descriptions and plates for both cars,” remembers Kent. “VPD response arrived in less than a minute. Questioning the teens in the parked car, VPD learned that they had purchased illegal drugs from a woman [who] sold drugs to high school students. Using the [vehicle description] information eventually led to the arrest of a mid-level dealer and the seizure of drugs, money and weapons.”

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