Bluff Park | Hoover | Alabama | Information | Neighborhood | 35226 | Bluff Park School

The Hoover Police Department has a Neighborhood Watch Program as well as a Business Watch Program that are overseen by Officer Brian Foreman.

To organize a Neighborhood Watch for your block or a Business Watch please contact Ofc. Foreman at 444-7700 or via e-mail at foremanr@ci.hoover.al.us

Ofc. Foreman will help organize a meeting and distribute all the material necessary to make the program succeed in your particular area. Our goal is to have all of the Bluff Park residents and businesses covered by the Watch Programs.

The column on the right will have meeting updates as well as links to Watch web sites and downloads for documents related to the watch program.

Neighborhood & Business Watch Updates

We received the following e-mail on 11/18/07:

AT MIDNIGHT LAST NIGHT, I HEARD A NOISE OUTSIDE OUR HOUSE AND LOOKED OUT TO FIND A TEENAGE BOY ATTEMPTING TO GET IN OUR NEIGHBOR'S CAR. I CALLED THE POLICE. WHILE ON THE PHONE WITH THE DISPATCHER, HE CAME INTO OUR DRIVEWAY. HE DID GET INTO ONE OF OUR CARS BUT DID NOT TAKE ANYTHING. HE THEN PROCEEDED TO GO TO SEVERAL OTHER HOUSES ALONG SHENANDOAH AND BEDFORD. EIGHT MINUTES INTO THIS, FOUR POLICE CARS CAME BUT WERE UNABLE TO FIND HIM. PLEASE BE SURE TO LOCK YOUR CARS AT NIGHT!

We received the following e-mail on 8/9/07:

Just be aware…Our vehicles along with at least 2 others were broken into last night on our road, Larkwood. Brookview was hit about 2 weeks ago. Make sure you are locking your cars at night.

We received the following e-mail on 7/31/07:

We live on Shades Crest Road not far from the TIP TOP restaurant. We left our home at around 6:00 pm to go to CVS yesterday July 30, 2007. We returned at approximately 6:30 pm to find that someone had kicked our front door open, gone upstairs and stole some of our jewelry. They also tried to break into our neighbor’s house by breaking out her glass patio door but the alarm must have scared them off. We noticed a black man with an orange shirt and shorts walking down Shades Crest headed toward TIP TOP as we were coming home. I remarked to my husband that it was odd to see anyone walking on Shades Crest that time of day. This morning my husband remembered that he has seen this man walking through the neighborhood but really thought nothing of it until we saw him walking down Shades Crest right after our house was robbed. It was very odd as the traffic was heavy and it was very hot and humid to be walking that time of day. I wanted to email so that everyone can be on alert for any suspicious individuals in our neighborhood.

Please remember what Ofc. Foreman told us at the November 2006 meeting: If you see something or someone suspicious, CALL THE HOOVER POLICE DEPARTMENT AT 822-5300. He said they would rather respond and investigate something that turns out to be nothing than to respond to a crime because nobody called.

We received the following e-mail on 7/27/07:

Sometime during the night on 7/25-26/07 my car was sitting in my driveway 50 feet from the street unlocked, as always. Someone opened the door and took my (work) Nextel, car charger and money out of the arm rest compartment leaving some papers from the compartment in the driver seat. I live in a very quiet neighborhood off Hawksbury Lane and have never had anything like this occur before. We suspect some teens that live near by that my neighbors have seen walking late at night and early in the mornings –just wondering the neighborhood. My neighbors were concerned enough about their actions to warn me, but it was a little too late.

I encourage everyone to lock their car no matter how far it is away from the street. Whoever is doing this is familiar with the area and residents. We usually keep an exterior light on, but that night it had been turned off. It appears they were watching…

Bluff Park Resident – Wouldn’t live anywhere else!

We received the following e-mail on 7/24/07:

I live near the swimming pool in Bluff Park. Around noon on Saturday, July 14, a young girl (18-20) came to my door. She introduced herself as Hayley Carter. She said she was my "neighbor down the street" and pointed in the direction and that her husband was out of town. She started crying and said that Ashley, her little girl, was real sick with a "bacterial infection in her intestines". She had taken her to the doctor but didn't have the money to buy her medicine and asked if I would loan her $20 until her husband returned on Sunday afternoon when she would bring the money back to me. Because she was very believable I gave her $20.
As she left, she crossed the street going in the opposite direction to where she had pointed that she lived so I stepped out on the porch and confronted her about it. She said she was waiting on her ride and about that time a gold Pontiac or Oldsmobile pulled out of the parking lot at the swimming pool and picked her up. An older woman was driving and there was a younger man in the passenger seat. They sped off in a big hurry so I did not get the tag number.
Needless to say, "Hayley" hasn't returned my $20 loan.

We received the following e-mail on 2/24/07:

Just thought you would like to know. We live on Rockview Lane and have had our cars pilfered for money, CD's etc. In the last couple of weeks. Neighbors all up and down our street have been 'hit' as well. We have filed a police report, but our neighbors have been 'hit' again in the last week. It seems obvious that it is kids /teenagers that live in the neighborhood, the police confirmed this; but said they only get lucky now and then and catch a few. Residents can put an end to this by locking their cars and keeping an eye out for these kids. They hit the cars late at night. We have been leaving more exterior lights on to discourage this behavior. Please let others in the neighborhood know about this annoying and illegal behavior.

On November 14, 2006 we had a neighborhood meeting at the Community School to discuss not only the news regarding the police sub-station opening in Bluff Park, but also getting the Neighborhood Watch organized. Well, the holidays are over so it's time to get started on this. The above e-mail is a perfect example of why this is so important. BluffParkAl.org's own Heather Staggs has done a write up on what it takes to get your block organized. To read the story, please click here.

Bluff Park Crime Statistics Through August 2006

The first meeting for the Neighborhood and Business Watch Programs was held on November 14, 2006 at the Hoover Community School at 7:00 pm.

Ofc. Foreman of the Hoover Police outlined the Watch programs, distributed material and discussed helping blocks and businesses get organized for their initial meeting.

Links and Downloads

Links

National Crime Prevention Council

USAOnWatch

Downloads

The following documents are available for download. If available, they can be downloaded in either Microsoft Word™ format or Adobe Acrobat™ format. If it is in Word format, you can edit it once you download it if you have Microsoft Word™ or a program that can open Word files. To open Adobe Acrobat™ files, you must have the free Adobe Acrobat Reader™ installed, which can be downloaded here. To save yourself time and bandwidth, the easiest method to obtain these files is to Right Click on each link and select "Save Target As" or "Save As" and save them in your My Documents folder, if you're using Windows, and then open them from inside that folder.

Identity Theft Tips (Word Document)

Identity Theft Tips (PDF Document)

Business Watch Phone Tree (Word Document)

Business Watch Phone Tree (PDF Document)

Business Watch Brochure (PDF Document)

Operation ID 2005 Brochure (Updated 1/22/07)(PDF Document)