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Clean Sweep In North Escambia Neighborhood
March 24, 2011
About 100 community volunteers, law enforcement officers and county employees teamed up this morning to clean up a North Escambia neighborhood.
The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office and the Cottage Hill Neighborhood Watch, along with several other agencies, conducted an “Operation Clean Sweep” event that began about 8:30 this morning.
“The focus of ‘Operation Clean Sweep’ is to work with neighborhood watch groups, residents, churches and business owners to control and prevent the damaging effects of criminal activity through eradication, enforcement and education,” according to Sena Madison, spokesperson for the Sheriff’s Office.
The Operation Task Force works closely with Escambia County Animal Control, environmental law enforcement, the United States military, Escambia County Roads and Bridges, and neighborhood watch groups to clean up neighborhoods and educate citizens on preventive measures that could be implemented to minimize possible crimes.
For more information on future clean ups, or to volunteer, contact P.O.C. Captain Tharp (850) 554-1384 or Deputy Wiggins (850) 554-1362. For more information on starting a neighborhood watch in your community, or to join an existing group, call David Craig (850) 436-9281 visit escambiaso.com.
Pictured top: An Escambia Sheriff’s deputy writes a ticket during a traffic enforcement this morning on Highway 95A in Cottage Hill. Pictured inset: A group of Marines pick up trash along Williams Ditch Road this morning. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Comments
31 Responses to “Clean Sweep In North Escambia Neighborhood”
Be careful what you ask for. In my 60+ years I have learned that cthese busy body neighbors just stir up the community and create a hornets nest! Makes for poor community relations Some will never be healed
I also know that a churches # 1 responsibility is to spread GODS word and seek thost lost to salvation. I need to ask one question.
If a church is sponsoring a neighborhood watch and upsetting the locals then how are you going to be able to knock on doors and have the respect you need to spreads GODS message. Innocent people get hurt and will remember your behavior for what it is.You then loose your testimony!
I was born and raised in Cottage Hill and love that community, I have no use for Meth labs, or thieves. I fight that battle where I live now almost daily.
THe church is not a social club to remedy the community of its problems .
A tree without fruit needs cut down, the tares need to be screened from the wheat that is the business of a church. Take your neighborhood watch out of the church and be a little more considerate of your neighbor. Find some other hobby than neighbor watching
NUFF SAID
Oh, they definitely DO look in your back yard and over fences. They do it all the time.
FYI, the breakins have been kids and I have reported them repeatedly and the SO hasn’t done a danged thing about it yet. I’ve even given them evidence, such as bragging on facebook and myspace about it, but….nothing done yet. I am very disappointed. Crimestoppers even told me that nothing had been reported so “no crime has been committed!!! Do you understand now???”
Don’t bother with crimestoppers. They don’t care and don’t tell the SO what you tell them. I spoke with someone at the SO and he said nobody had told him that this info had been reported and there definitely WERE a lot of reports made, including my own house.
Lets clarify what this is. When I worked with the county we did a few of these. First, inmates ARE out there working. There are volunteers from the community (which never is many) and a good bit from the navy/marines. County employee’s go around and pick up garbage and debris from the roads with the inmates. The cops drive around and basically who ever they see they talk to and run a check on those people. Ive seen as many as 10 people arrested from having warrants in one day doing this . The sheriff always comes for lunch and a pep talk. NEVER gets his hands dirty. lol. All in all it is a very good thing. I have NEVER seen them going in someones yard or looking over fences so they can issue citations. Their goal is to clean up the roads.
His Majesty,
Let me see if I have this right… The Sheriff’s office organizes an event in your neighborhood. 100 volunteers come out, clean, police, show support for YOUR neighborhood. You get your area cleaned, and experience a great outpouring of support from people you don;t even know….
AND, your reaction? Your reaction is to criticize the sheriff…
I bet you would complain about a free ice cream cone!
Remember the days of yore. Young men came to Pensacola to learn about Naval Aviation, and go off to offer their lives in defense of America. Many of them came back to Pensacola, remembering the days of their youth, retiring here and contributing to this community. Fast forward….the sailors and marines, are going into the communities, cleaning cemetarys, and cleaning up garbage from yards, and rights-of-way, while the home boys sit on the front porch with their malt liquor and are are really appreciative of all the “entitlements.”
We did not see His Majesty the Sheriff out there because he downtown shaking jurors hands!!! Being elected Sheriff has been alot bigger job than was expected. Telling the Governor how to run the State, telling 3 Federal Judges to pack sand………1 more year and a half and this egomaniac will be retired.
REF. USING INMATES TO CLEAN UP—YOU HAVE TO HAVE AN OFFICER OR TWO OR THREE TO WATCH THEM. IF THEY DECIDE TO TAKE OFF SOME ONE HAS TO TRY TO STOP THEM. THE JAIL AND THE S.O. ARE ALREADY SHORT OF PERSONNEL SO WHO’LL WATCH THEM. ARE YOU REALLY SURE YOU WANT AN INMATE TAKING A GOOD LOOK AT YOUR HOME/CAR PORT/ OR GARAGE THAT MAY BE OPEN. SOME TIMES THE SIMPLE ANSWERS ARE NOT SO SIMPLE. I KEEP MY PROPERTY CLEAN—THAT DOES NOT MEAN THE FELLOW WHO LIVES DOWN THE STREET WILL. THANKS S.O. AND MARINES AND OTHERS FOR TRYING TO HELP.
This is a great idea for our community. BUT I do have an issue with the code enforcement being able to come on your property and behind a fence and look for issues to right you up. Don’t seem legal to me. Sounds like Gestapo tactics if you ask me, but I’m just an ole blue collar citizen.
I have lived in Cottage Hill all my life. Our house was broken into 25 years ago. There was a drug house down the street. (They found it very uncomfortable to live there with as often as the cops were called and moved out shortly after moving in.) There has always been “shroon” hunters running though the cow pastures in the area. It has gotten much worse in the last few years. We’ve had people take stuff off of our back porch in the middle of the night. I hate that a place that was so nice to grow up in has gotten so bad. Try walking down Williams Ditch now. You’ll get ran over. My sister’s house was broken into in the middle of the day! Another time she had stuff stolen out of her yard. Cops have been called repeatedly. They come out, repeatedly. They waste their time because these criminals beat the cops home. Thanks for the effort to clean up the neighborhood, but it will take a justice system that doesn’t back down to help REALLY clean it up. I do appriciate the effort of the volunteers that came out today though. Thanks for the hard work.
I LIVE IN COTTAGE HILL AREA AND THE ROAD I LIVE ON IS QUITE, WE HAVE NO PROBLEMS, I DO HAVE A CAMER SYSTEM. BECAUSE I KNOW THAT THERE ARE BAD PEOPL;E OUT THERE. IF THERE IS ANY DRUGS SELLING OR DOING THEY DO A GREAT JOB KEEPIN IT TO THEIR SELFS. I DO THINK THATS IT GREAT TO HAVE A neighborhood WATCH, BUT I USE TO LIVE IN AN AREA WERE THERE WAS ALOT OF DRUGS GOING ON AND THE LAW WOULDNT DO ANYTING ABOUT IT, SO I AM HAPPY TO HEAR THAT THE LAW IS WORKING WITH THE CLEAN UP
This is good for the community but the only way to clean up the rats is to get them when they come out of there hole, if you don’t catch them they will just move to another area.
The organizational meeting will be Friday April 1, at the Cottage Hill Baptist Church on Williams Ditch Rd. at 6pm. Please come and get involved…!!
Coach Bell,
Community involvement takes many forms. Personal home defense is certainly one of them.
I am glad this effort was not hindered by the nay-Sayers on the internet.
Good job to the ECSO, Marine volunteers, and all involved from the local community!
cottage hill used to be a great little neighborhood. had a friend over there a long time ago. this is a good thing for cottage hill and i am very proud for them. it can be a great little neighborhood again. watch out thugs and riff raff…you all are on your way out!!! love stories like this one…
Coach Bell, a 30-06 is a rifle not a shotgun, only a shotgun can shoot buckshot.
30 years ago Cottage Hill was a pretty nice community. Now the thugs and slimeballs and meth heads are running rampant in this area. The big-to-do about the neighborhood crime watch and all the advertising about it I’m sure will cause all the scumbags to change their ways lest their neighbor report them.
But, gotta start somewhere! Other methods come to mind, but some of our good folks might frown on them!
I am a resident of Cottage Hill & would like to get involved with the Neighborhood watch, but can’t attend the clean up tomorrow morning. Can anyone give me some contact information or some schedule of meetings so that I can get involved.
My vehicles were broken into about a month ago during the middle of the night, and I can tell you that the thieves were lucky they didn’t try to get into my home, or they would’ve gotten acquainted with some buckshot from my .30-06!
>>> I’m confused….Is this a trash pick-up?
It’s all of the above. Crime prevention, trash pickup, weeks, overgrowth, outstanding arrest warrants.
I’m confused….Is this a trash pick-up? I live in the Cottage Hill neighborhood and there are TV’s, paintcans, tires, etc etc all up and down the roads. The article sounds like its a crime prevention thing.
PLEASE…..all you negative folks, this is a start to clean up this area and get the thugs out and keep them out.
Some of us law abiding citizens ASKED the ECSD to help us form a neighborhood watch and educate us on the drug activity so we can spot what is going on in our area.
Have you had your vehicle broken into lately, things taken from your house and yard, your house comes close to burning down because some idiot is careless with his meth cooking????
I am an active member of the new COTTAGE HILL NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH and we will be patroling and watching for illigal activities and report them to the Sheriff’s Dept.
This is just a start to help clean up the area and hideing places for that kind of activity. If you want to feel and be safe, join us and come to our first organizational meeting on April 1, 6pm at Cottage Hill Baptist Church.
Let’s be proud of the safe area where we live and raise our children..!!
Am I missing something here? Isn’t this simply going through the neighborhood and cleaning it up – getting rid of the trash, but not necessarily (at this time) the human “trash?”
I am sure it will work really well since it is being advertised and the thugs know they are coming. I guess they forgot to tell the sheriff that. God forbit they go and kick down doors or anything. This must be the kinda thing they do in the Air Force where you don’t have to deal with criminals except on rare occasion. Wait, could this be a political move?
They certainly do when they are in the planning stages to do the sweep.
Do you think the thugs have enough warning.
LOL three hots and a cot! Never heard that before…I agree with you though, were paying for them to sit in a/c and lounge around all day. I have friends that work at the prison and it makes me sick! The sorry things just get to sit around all day playin cards and doin what they want pretty much, while hard workin folks pay for their food and tv and everything else!
like I said b-4 smoke and mirrors
How about taking the inmates that are getting 3 hots and a cot and let them clean it up. We pay for them to set in the A/C ,watch TV , play ball, hang out and shoot the bull.Yes I know that there is a small handfull that already do road work.Maybe the next time that this event takes place they could post signs and pass out fliers letting the drug dealer and the meth labs know a week or two in advance .
I don’t understand what county roads and bridges have to do with this whole
thing. why involve citizens who are a large part of the problem?
Isn’t that like asking the monkeys to watch over the banana’s?
How did county roads get involved why waste the time. Talk about
smoke and mirrors.
David Morgan is complaining about his staff being too thin. Maybe if he stopped using them as garbage men. If he wants to do a sweep and get criminals in jail, he needs to do it at 8pm not 8 am.
jusme,
Might be good to call code enforcement about the trailer, if it is a problem you might find picking up the phone to be more effective then just making a post here.
WRT the story, I am glad the ECSO is such a supporter of our neighborhood watches! Communities that are interested in taking action against crime can get help just by asking… I know I have always received an excellent response.
Hope the event on Thursday goes well, thanks to all in advance for turning out!
Wish they would do something about the abandoned trailer on stacey road at the curve, vagrants and other folk are
rummaging thru the trash heap and partying there