Christopher Anderson, North County Outlook
To help business owners combat property crimes that can potentially drive away customers, a new Business Watch program is being unveiled for the Marysville and Tulalip communities.
The program will be similar to Marysville’s Neighborhood Watch program which has helped residents keep watch for their neighbors for more than two decades, according to Doug Buell, the city’s Public Information Officer.
Marysville and Tulalip police have partnered for the program.
The Neighborhood Watch program has been successful because it helps in many objectives including: “getting neighbors to know one another, identifying common issues, setting shared goals, building a familiarity among each other, which allows for greater crime prevention through awareness,” explained Mark Thomas, the Marysville Police lieutenant who will run the program.
By getting neighboring businesses to work together, Thomas feels that the Business Watch program can also be successful and help businesses identify suspicious behavior faster.
The program is meant to help business owners control their own fate when it comes to crime in their community, said Rick Smith, Marysville’s chief of police.
“The philosophy of Business Watch is to take control of what happens in your business community and lessen your chance of becoming a victim,” said Thomas.
“It is going to be imperative that we work together,” he said at the Greater Marysville Tulalip Business Before Hours Breakfast at the Tulalip Resort on May 31. “These have been difficult times of uncertainty for businesses and the economy. We want to bring certainty back into your lives.”
Business Watch provides a way to actively reduce and prevent crime through cooperation and education, said Thomas. “It provides a platform to help teach merchants to ‘crime-proof’ their own properties, watch over their neighbor’s property, and report and document suspicious behavior.”
Thomas says it’s often the simple day-to-day things that can prevent crime, like being vigilant or instituting changes inside and outside the office that make it difficult for criminals to operate.
Establishing a Business Watch requires continued commitment and dialogue, noted Buell.
“Business Watch, like Neighborhood Watch, is a program that is run by you, the group. It can be as involved and complex or as simple and straight forward as you want it to be,” said Thomas.
The first steps include forming a planning committee to discuss needs and problems, conducting a business survey, planning a kickoff event and convening an initial meeting to identify members and name officers.
If you’re interested in starting a Business Watch group in the Marysville/Tulalip community, contact Lieutenant Mark Thomas at 360-363-8321 or mthomas@marysvillewa.gov, Bob Rise at 363-363-8325 or MVP@marysvillewa.gov, or Tulalip Deputy Chief Carlos Echevarria at 363-716-4608 or cechevarria@TulalipTribalPolice.org.