When people realize you aren’t trying to sell them anything, they’re “pretty receptive,” according to Langley City Councillor Nathan Pachal.
Pachal’s comment came at the end of the first day of the city’s Know Your Neighbour campaign, where volunteers go door-to-door.
Pachal, chair of the City Crime Prevention Task Group went out on Saturday (Sept. 28) with one of several teams of volunteers who distributed crime prevention tips and other useful information.
“Because we know, when you know your neighbour, crime rates go down,” Pachal told the Langley Advance Times.
“So that’s what we’re trying to encourage.”
It is the second year of the campaign in the city.
In 2018, teams of volunteers concentrated on the area south of the Nicomekl river, so this year, they decided to go south, Pachal explained.
Reaction to the door-to-door visits was “really positive,” he related.
People were given crime prevention tips, trail maps, “who to call if there’s a pot hole or garbage that needs to be picked up” and also encouraged to sign up for the City’s e-newsletter.
“One of the new things that people are going to find there, is crime prevention maps,” Pachal said.
“So it will show the hots spots such as property crime, theft from auto, auto theft, break and enters. It will also show where the block watches are, so, hopefully we can get people connected to block watches as well.
Pachal credited City community safety manager Dave Selvage for proposing the program, based on a similar campaign conducted in Burnaby when Selvage was with the RCMP in that city.
“He found out it was pretty successful,” Pachal recalled, “so we decided, why not try it out in Langley City?”
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Volunteers will be going out against next Saturday, Oct. 5, from 10 a.m. to noon.
Selvage said the goal is to reach about 750 households.
“The Crime Prevention Task Group will hold a debrief to discuss the how the project went this year. If the project is successful, the hopes are to continue with it in the future,” Selvage said.
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