Sheriff’s Office Plans ‘Clean Sweep’ In Cottage Hill

January 10, 2014

The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office has planned their first Clean Sweep of the year for next Thursday, January 16 in the Cottage Hill area.

The Clean Sweep will begin at the Cottage Hill Baptist Church at 230 Williams Ditch Road and concentrate on the area east of Highway 95A between McKenzie Road and Becks Lake Road.

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, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

Comments

16 Responses to “Sheriff’s Office Plans ‘Clean Sweep’ In Cottage Hill”

  1. russell odea on January 15th, 2014 11:00 am

    when are they going to pick up trash and when will it be done??, and on neighborhood watch never knew it i’ve lived here since i was in high school, i’m 44 now , neighborhood watch don’t get out much,

  2. Doug Masters on January 13th, 2014 12:15 pm

    “HERE’S AND IDEAL HOW ABOUT YOU NOT TELL THE CRIMINALS YOUR COMING PRIOR TO ARRIVING AND YOU JUST MIGHT GET GOOD RESULTS FROM YOUR
    ” CLEAN SWEEP ” ITS LIKE SAYING OK WE’LL BE HERE ON JANUARY 16, HERES WHERE WERE STARTING SO YOU SHOULD SWEEP YOUR DRUGS AND ILLEGAL ACTIVITY CLEAN AS YOU CAN SO WE DONT FIND IT ! HONESTLY IT DONT TAKE A WHOLE LOT OF THOUGHT TO KNOW YOU DONT WARN THE VERY ONES YOUR TRYING TO CATCH !”

    Here’ a thought Mommm. State and Federal laws require notification of special projects “stings” to the general public prior to the operation commencing. Same for DUI and vehicle inspection checkpoints. That is why they are advertised. Or do you suggest the Sheriff violate the very laws he is sworn to protect. Just be happy they are coming to help clean up your neighborhood.

  3. Cottage Hill Neighborhood Watch Group on January 13th, 2014 6:52 am

    Charlotte Bates:
    We have a Neighborhood Watch in Cottage Hill, we meet every other month, at Cottage Hill Baptist Church, 230 Williams Ditch Rd, the next meeting will be Feb.28, 6:30 P.M. Please come join us! Any others interested please come.

  4. JDub on January 12th, 2014 7:13 pm

    How do we get speed bumps put down for Smyers Road? Sick and tired of idiots racing up and down the street. I do not let my kids near the street because people feel the need to drive so fast. * Note the posted limit is 30mph.

  5. Charlotte Bates on January 11th, 2014 7:37 pm

    I for one would love to be involved with “neighborhood watch.” My neighbor’s on both sides of me have been broken into and petty stuff taken, which suggest to me it’s either kids, or young teenagers. I keep my eyes and ears open, especially at night, and if I see or hear anything that is off, I will call he law. I especially have an elderly lady next door that I watch out for. However, I will say, for the most part, Cottage Hill is a great place to live. I’ve been here since 1995, and never had any problems, except one time. But now that I have a very large dog in the yard, I’m not bothered anymore.

  6. Seriously on January 11th, 2014 10:29 am

    We have a neighborhood watch program in our neighborhood and we also participated in a cleen sweep operation. David Craig and the ESCO and the sea of volunteers were a welcoming sight in our neighborhood! They removed 5 tons of trash, wrote numerous code violation citations, arrested a few people even. And because of the sweep, the county became aware that some of our sidewalks were in need of repair, etc. We even had a traffic study done and got our speedlimit lowered in our neighborhood. All of that and more got taken care of BECAUSE we had a cleen sweep takenplace. I say KUDOS to David Morgan and David Craig, these guys are actually DOING SOMETHING. Thank you !

  7. 911 Operator on January 11th, 2014 4:14 am

    I like the saying, “If you see something, say something.” Neighborhood Watch is a great way to take control of your neighborhood, be aware of who should and shouldn’t be there, and stop an active crime or prevent future ones. I once observed a very strange situation that was uncharacteristic for the area and time of night. I called it in as a suspicious circumstance and it turned out, a man had died on his porch (natural causes) hours earlier and his front door was left open all day long. I could have just decided to not get involved, but what if it had been a burglary and/or he had been murdered? O

    I occasionally will receive a call that I think could just be a nosy neighbor but instead turns into a crime being committed or about to be committed. It’s always better to call in the strange circumstances than to just let them go.

    I also think the Neighborhood Watch Academy at ECSO would be pretty informative. Hey David Craig,

  8. David Craig - ECSO Community Services on January 10th, 2014 11:10 pm

    I invite any interested citizens to join a Neighborhood Watch, start one, or attend one of our ECO Neighborhood Watch Academy classes. We only have about 1 Clean sweep in any particular area about every year or two at most. They are over in about 4 hours. Many positive things happen as a result and if you do the math it would be hard to do LESS clean sweeps that we do now. Solving crime is a great idea but police have a difficult time solving property crimes from sea to shining sea. I am a big believer in CRIME PREVENTION. The crime you prevent is the crime you don’t have to solve. Crime prevention techniques when implemented by a community are very effective. It gives them something more productive to do than complain about other efforts at positive improvement by the Sheriff’s Office. There is no doubt we need your help more than your criticism. We need your eyes and ears. And we need you to call when you see suspicious or criminal activity. If you would like to know more about Crime prevention please call me anytime. 436-9281.

  9. David Huie Green on January 10th, 2014 2:40 pm

    If you want to catch people committing crimes, you hide the fact that you are in law enforcement and watching.

    If you want to stop crimes from being committed in the first place, you make law enforcement as visible and variable as possible.

    If you know law enforcement could come by at any time, you are afraid of getting caught so you put off evil-doing in the first place.

    If you just saw a deputy pass and know he won’t be back for 45′, then you know you are free to do anything you want for 44′.
    (If you know he won’t be back for 8 hours, you feel free to do evil for 7 hours 59′. If you know others are watching, you do not feel safe in crime. If you know armed people might be watching and ready to shoot you, . . . )

    David for cameras known to be in public places

  10. mommm on January 10th, 2014 1:25 pm

    HERE’S AND IDEAL HOW ABOUT YOU NOT TELL THE CRIMINALS YOUR COMING PRIOR TO ARRIVING AND YOU JUST MIGHT GET GOOD RESULTS FROM YOUR
    ” CLEAN SWEEP ” ITS LIKE SAYING OK WE’LL BE HERE ON JANUARY 16, HERES WHERE WERE STARTING SO YOU SHOULD SWEEP YOUR DRUGS AND ILLEGAL ACTIVITY CLEAN AS YOU CAN SO WE DONT FIND IT ! HONESTLY IT DONT TAKE A WHOLE LOT OF THOUGHT TO KNOW YOU DONT WARN THE VERY ONES YOUR TRYING TO CATCH !

  11. d on January 10th, 2014 1:21 pm

    Be careful what you ask for! Vigilantism we nt out long agol “Clean Sweeps”disturb me. I was born and raised in Cottage Hill. It looks no worse or no better than when I grew up there. I read PNJ and North Escambia daily on line and have read of no reortable crime wave there yet. Time would be better spen t llookking flor clopper thnieves at the old Molino School/Community center. It is one thing tol be vkigkiloan t and report suspicious activity and another to be ,interfering and harass people who are just living. No where in my travels have I heard of this “crime sweep ” being performed in other communities like it is in Escambia County. It is more of a symbol of a police state! MY OPINION!

  12. Suzie B on January 10th, 2014 10:09 am

    Neighborhood Watches are an important part of assisting the Sheriff’s office in reporting crime. Is there one in your area? If not, start one. The best information I got was “If you see something, say something” – call them when in doubt !! They do not have enough personnel to be everywhere but if we are the eyes and ears, they WILL respond when called. Also, if you do research on the Clean Sweeps, you will find that a LOT goes on that doesn’t use Esc. Co. law enforcement personnel. Code enforcement is present, volunteers to help trash clean ups, Military personnel, road dept. and more. It’s not just Sheriff office personnel. However, they DO issue warrants while in the area and check on current status of any know sex offenders as well as checking on car registrations, driver’s license and more. It is a combined effort to clean up the area to help prevent crime. Nothing will stop it all together but being involved is the first step towards protecting yourself and your family. Yes, I now have a Neighborhood watch group and I DO NOT regret making that decision. We do not officially patrol our area ourselves but response time of the Sheriff’s Dept is great and they come anytime they are called.

  13. Patriot on January 10th, 2014 9:14 am

    Shawn,

    Maybe you could be so gracious as to come to this event and show us how you would “solve” all this crime. We’d love to hear your ideas.

  14. Justin on January 10th, 2014 8:58 am

    Beautiful police dog!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  15. HOGKILLER31 on January 10th, 2014 8:20 am

    SHAWN PLEASE TELL SOMEONE WHERE NEXT CRIME WILL TAKE PLACE AND WE WILL THE LAW WAITING ON THEM

  16. Shawn on January 10th, 2014 5:21 am

    We need less “clean sweep” and more “solve crime” especially the burglaries happening all over the county. The Cantonment and Molino areas now see burglaries at the rate Pensacola did a couple years ago. Picking up garbage and riding police horses isn’t going to solve or prevent a single crime.