In the more than a year that residents of select neighborhoods in the City of Washington (and across the line into Canton Township) began organizing, just about the only outward sign of action by crime and grime watchers has been to hold meetings and put up signs that warn do-badders that the do-gooders are watching. Hey, it's a start.
The neighborhood effort suffered what could have been a mortal blow when its chief spokesman turned out to be a law-breaker himself.
Bill Reihner, who is well-known to city and other area police agencies for multiple offenses involving myriad violations (suspended license and unregistered, uninspected and uninsured vehicles, to name a few) skipped a court date some months ago. He hasn't been seen since. Lately, he is suspected of making off with the proceeds from a drawing intended to fund more crime watch signs.
"As of about four days ago, according to our sources, he's somewhere in South Carolina," Washington police Chief James R. Blyth said Monday. "Just where, we're not sure, but he'll show up."
Blyth, a 30-plus-year veteran policeman, said he was "apprehensive about his track record," regarding Reihner's leadership role in the neighbor watch effort.
"I don't want to take anything away from what he did organizing the various programs," Blyth added. "At least he focused community awareness on crime problems out in the neighborhoods."
"I'm really disappointed in that guy," said Ron Harton, Canton Township supervisor and an early, enthusiastic subscriber to the doctrine of individual involvement that Reihner preached. "We were making progress, and then this happens ..."
And then there's the matter of a $1,500 prize in a drawing that Reihner sold before he headed south with the Canada geese.
"The Canton program had nothing to do with that drawing," Harton said. "I told her that she'd probably have to go to a district judge over that."
Jodi Maxwell, a resident of the 700 block of Broad Street, close to the 8th Ward playground where gunfire March 31 stirred his involvement, is trying to arrange an area-wide citizens watch program.
"The way it is now, nobody's talking to anybody else. The 7th isn't talking to the 8th Ward; the 5th isn't talking to the 1st. If we're going to get anything done, we're going to have to start communicating with each other.
"That's what I thought was going to happen when Reihner left," Maxwell said. "Crime watch took a big slap because of him. If we start talking to each other, maybe we can save this."
"If we had a real watch program going, we could get out the information warning people to lock their cars overnight," Harton said. "We just had a report of unlocked cars being entered overnight on Malone Ridge Road. Crime is out there, too."