I watch some of the neighborhood groups. After being a part of their facebook page and seeing the success stories and the positive way the group is run, I called Mr. Ostrom last week and asked to interview him.
The following responses are based on questions I asked Mr. Ostrom.
I asked him how the group got started, who was the founder and about the structure of the group.
"I got the idea from Humboldt Hill in Eureka. They created a group site and they were posting pictures of shady people, vandalism and burglaries. I thought using Facebook Groups for that reason was an excellent way to communicate with your neighbors, since we are all using the Facebook platform anyways. That is when I started McKinleyville Community Watch. I didn't want to call it McKinleyville Crime Watch because I thought that limited the potential of this Facebook Group. The mission is to restore a sense of community to McKinleyville through this group's site; reporting crime is just one way we can do that. I then posted fliers on a couple dozen group mailboxes posting information about McKinleyville Community Watch and a web address to join. Slowly, very slowly, people were joining. After the first year we probably had around 500 people. The second year is when word of mouth got out and it really started to take off. Even when the group was less than 100 people I kept posting to the group site. I wanted to train people how to use this group to their advantage. For a while I was the only person posting and the only person looking at the posts, but I knew it would eventually catch on. When I created the group I added my wife, mother-in-law and a couple of my friends that lived in McKinleyville and then I posted my fliers."
The facebook page has lot of information, guidelines, is well-managed and dialogue is very respectful. I asked Mr. Ostrom to give me feedback on why this group works so well.
"There are literally millions of groups on Facebook. I did a lot of research on Facebook groups and found out how a lot of them became successful and found out how a lot of them failed. The key to a successful group is to have Guidelines. Guidelines for both the members of the group and the admins of the group. Keep in mind, a lot of this information I didn't know when I started the group. As the group was gaining popularity and size, I was doing more research on Facebook Groups. Having clear guidelines for all members and admins makes it easy to manage. A year ago, we came up with guidelines for our members. A few weeks ago, we re-evaluated our guidelines and came up with an updated version. During that time we also came up with guidelines for us admins. Admins need to be transparent. One admin can derail the entire group, since they are representing the group."
The facebook page is a closed group group with membership by invitation. Mr. Ostrom explained the reasons for this decision.
"When I started the group, it was an open group. I did that to gain membership. I wanted people to see what they are joining and how it was beneficial to them. You are less likely to join a group if you don't know what it's about. Once we reached 500 members is when I polled our membership about if the group should be open or closed. I also did a lot of research. I had to be careful, because once you "close" a group at this size, you can't go back. But everyone felt that a closed group would protect them members and their posting. Plus, all the research said to close it. So,once voting was closed, it was clear that people wanted it closed, so I flipped the switch."
Eureka now has a similar group.
"Eureka Community Watch was created by Jeanette Arnot. She saw the benefits of MCW. I offered to be an admin and bring in my resources and she took me up on my offer. The group is only a couple/few months old, so it's small, but growing slowly. Once word gets out, I think it will grow like wild fire, because of places like Downtown, Broadway, Devils Playground, etc. I feel there is more to be afraid of in Eureka, than McKinleyville. You know the stats of Eureka vs other towns."
Group accomplishments are many. Mr. Ostrom shared some of them:
- "Spreading awareness of what's going on in our neighborhoods, re-establishing a connection with your neighbors. The more people that are aware of what is happening on our streets and in our backyards, the hard it is to get away with it. Also, a few bad apples in this town can kill the sense of community in a town. We don't need people sheltered in their house afraid to talk to their neighbors and to go out side. We need everyone talking with their neighbors and walking our streets, keeping us safe. I wanted to remind everyone that several thousand residents with cell phones and Facebook can put a kibosh on the bad apples in our town."
- "We introduced CrimeReports.com to our sheriff department. This puts the crime data in the hands of the residents. This will help with reality vs perception. People may think their neighborhood has problems, but in fact most of the reported calls are in another section of town. Also, this will help with reporting, since 70% of crime doesn't get reported (that came from the Eureka Police Dept.). People want so see their pin point on the map. At the time the Lt. Miller wasn't familiar with this site, but see saw the value in it and it looks like the Sheriff department will be up and running on crimereports.com by the end of the year. Eureka police department is currently using it. Every town in the county would benefit from this. Think about people looking for a home, don't you want to know what crime is going on in the neighborhoods around you? Since the information is public, this will prompt residents and city official to tackle it."
- "Illegal campers: We've established relationships with landowners and worked with them to cleanup all the illegal campers on their properties."
- "We are meeting with our Supervisor Ryan Sundberg regularly and are currently setting up monthly meeting with the Sheriff's department to talk about pressing issues with the group and to pass information downward from the Sheriff department."
- " Because we have a voice now. We've been able to have MCW meetings in McKinleyville and bring out guests like Lt. Miller, Maggie Fleming, Head of the Probation dept., Ryan Sundberg, Head of our Highway Patrol, etc. to talk and inform us about hot topics, like Measure Z, staffing, gangs, etc. This also give us the opportunity to pass information up the ladder to them as well."
- "One of our residents, single mother of two, had her car stolen from in front of her house. She reported it to the police, but it was found and posted by one of our MCW members. We then set up a crowdfunding site for her and raise a couple/few thousand dollars to get a vehicle for her and her two kids."
- "We are physically cleaning up our town. Saturday the 24th will be our second McKinleyville 90 Minute Trash Mob. We took this concept from my non-profit PacOut Green Team. POGT has weekly 60 minute cleanups every Saturday throughout Humboldt County."
https://www.facebook.com/events/1494073404220132/
The link above is to the facebook page for the McKinleyville 90 minute clean up event on Saturday, October 24. This event is sponsored by 5th District Supervisor Ryan Sundberg and the members of McKinleyville Community Watch.
On October 9, Mr. Ostrom was walking around and came across potential sites to clean up for October 24.
Supervisor Sundberg said, "The Mckinleyville Community Watch is a great example of how the community can work with their Supervisor, County Departments, and especially the Sheriff to enhance efforts to preserve quality of life in our neighborhoods and towns.
"The Sheriff and I get information and concerns from the Facebook page. This makes our jobs easier and we appreciate hearing directly from our community. We are also very lucky to have a local businessperson and community leader like Aaron whose positive spirit has made this group so effective."
Nice!
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