FAIRHOPE, Alabama—Following a string of reported break-ins of houses and automobiles in Montrose this year, several residents have begun organizing a crime watch group in that small Eastern Shore community.

“We’ve had all kinds of issues with the break-ins,” said Councilwoman Debbie Quinn, who lives in the community and helped organize a meeting this week with the Fairhope Police Department. “We need to be more vigilant and look out for our neighbors.”

About a dozen people met Sept.6 with Assistant Police Chief Terry Sanders, Sgt. Jimmy Davis and Investigator Fred King to discuss how to renew a neighborhood watch group that once existed there.

“We will help any way we can in getting a good program going,” said Sanders, who has helped other communities start such groups.

The key to a strong program is being alert to suspicious activity in the area and having an organized way to record and report it back to the police, he said.

“I don’t know at what level you want to go,” he said. “Most groups do not have patrols.”

The group selected a coordinator who will meet soon with Sanders, Quinn and a few others to get the program going, which will include recruiting block leaders, finding a meeting place, choosing signs to post at entrances to the community, and deciding on activities the group wants to perform.

“You already have done a lot of good just by alerting each other to the problem,” Sanders said.