Neighborhood Bands Together to Hire Private Police to Deal With Car Thefts

Residents of one Missouri neighborhood have decided to take fighting crime into their own hands – and early results indicate that it may be working. 

According to Fox 2 Now, some St. Louis families and business owners are voluntarily contributing to a program to hire their private police forces.

In addition to having a private officer on duty, residents also paid for more than 100 cameras to be installed at private homes and businesses. 

“The cameras send automatic alerts to a tablet that’s monitored, in our case, by a private duty officer,” Tom Scheifler, a resident and neighborhood security chairman, told Fox 2 Now. Officers then review the alerts and if they suspect criminal activity they head to the location. 

“With a security camera, we were able to identify and alert our officer on duty in seconds and have that officer respond,” Scheifler said. 

In the initial months of this program, the private police officer has already disrupted several crimes and made two arrests.

Notably, they were able to successfully disrupt a potential car theft – in the same spot where neighborhood resident Tom Byrne’s car had been stolen several months ago.

“What you get is a feeling of security. What you get is a feeling that while you sleep, nobody’s going to steal your car or take all the contents out of your car,” neighborhood resident Tom Byrne told Fox 2 Now. “I know (this) is going to work. I can see it working.”

The program currently operates four days a week and costs $15 a month. According to Fox 2 Now, with more financial contributions the program could be active seven days a week.