Since late 2008, residents of Millheim borough have occupied the town and streets in a citizen-run crime watch program that aims to improve their community and control crime without additional policing.
Millheim residents occupy streets to stop crime
by Kevin Handwerk
and Andrea Rochat
Since late 2008, residents of Millheim borough have occupied the town and streets in a citizen-run crime watch program that aims to improve their community and control crime without additional policing.
In 2008 Millheim Borough experienced what many residents viewed as a crime spree, with increases particularly in vandalism and assault. Police Sgt. Reese, commander of State Police Rockview station, confirmed in an interview that “there was a spike” in 2008, with a total of 187 incidents reported that year. The incidents that residents were concerned with had occurred after business hours and involved a variety of crimes from vandalism to assault. Council minutes from June 2008 show that police Sgt. Emigh (former commander of Rockview State Police who was replaced by Sgt. Reese 2012) stated the total reports of burglaries were up from 7 in 2007 to 32 in 2008.
In response to this spike, the borough council conducted meetings in 2008 and into 2009 to discuss economical ways to approach the increase in crime.
A borough meeting in March of 2008 hosted guest speaker Chief Donald Zerbe from Harleton Borough who informed the council of the costs and benefits of establishing a locally-based, borough police force. Both Harleton and Millheim are under State Police coverage.
The State Police Rockview Barracks for Millheim is located on the west side of Bellefonte and patrols along state roads like Route 45 and 445. Given Millheim’s distance from the barracks, fast response times to reports of vandalism and assault were a concern for the residens.
Milheilm couldn’t afford to establish its own police force. In February of 2009 the borough council arranged an instructional meeting with a state trooper to discuss effective neighborhood watch system. Soon after, the borough developed its own resident-run crime watch program, Crimewatch.
Concurrent with the increase in crime incidents and the subsequent development of Crimewatch was on ongoing discussion, spearheaded by Ronald Fetzer, President of the Business Association, on ways to attract visitors and new businesses. During this same time, regulations set forth by the Historical Architecture Review Board (HARB) began to take effect. These regulations called for the repair of broken windows and restoration of damaged property, in an effort to preserve the architectural quality of Millheim.
This multi-pronged approach to improving and caring for the condition of the community had its effect. In the years since HARB regulations and the community crime watch took effect, Millheim incident reports have dropped down to 113 incidents in 2010 and 125 in 2011. Some residents believe that the observed behavior of rehabilitating and maintaining the town had an impact on crime.
Crimewatch, maintained and supported since early 2009 by Millheim residents with no police involvement, has produced positive changes within the community. When asked if there had been a change from the 2008 crime spree, residents, like local business person Cyndy Engle claimed she felt more comfortable in the borough and safer being outdoors at night.
Engle credits three main reasons for the decrease in crime:
“[There was] an awareness [of the problem], an increase in activity and new businesses, and a change of attitude in the community,” Engle said. “People began to care.”
While the actual measurement of crime rates is often very complicated and at times controversial, police Sgt. Reese agreed that the amount of crime has dropped. As to what caused the spike and decrease of crime in Millheim, the situation may be a real world application of the oft-debated criminological concept “Broken Windows Theory” (BWT) conceived by James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling, and first set forth in a 1982 Atlantic Monthly article.
The theory rests upon the metaphor of a vacant building whose broken windows are not repaired or maintained. In time, the other windows will be broken as well, and possibly be vandalized in other ways.
<