What's at stake:
With the new money, Fresno Police and Neighborhood Watch plans on expanding the number of neighborhood watch groups in Fresno to more than 200 by June 2025.
The City of Fresno gave a $100,000 grant to Fresno Police and Neighborhood Watch, a nonprofit that organizes local neighborhood watch groups across the city.
The grant was approved by the Fresno City Council at a Thursday city council meeting, along with 23 other items on the consent agenda — which were all passed together with a single vote. Consent agenda items are not discussed publicly during city council meetings unless they are pulled by a councilmember.
The grant uses American Rescue Plan Act funds, federal dollars meant to help local governments and economies rebound during the pandemic. The nonprofit watch group received a $300,000 grant back in 2022 as well, and, since then, has expanded its footprint across the city.
Executive Director Mary Wienholz-Haskin said her organization grew the number of neighborhood watch groups from just five in 2022 to more than 150 by June 2023. That’s more local neighborhood watch groups in Fresno than schools in the Fresno Unified and Central Unified school districts combined.
With the new funds, the nonprofit is looking to expand the number of Fresno neighborhood watch groups to more than 200 across the city. Wienholz-Haskin stressed that the watch groups are not about civilians taking matters into their own hands, but rather residents communicating with each other about what’s going on in their neighborhoods.
“We don’t want them to be vigilantes, we don’t want them to arm themselves,” Wienholz-Haskin said. “We want to teach them low level strategies on how they can protect their homes better, how they can communicate with each other.”
Wienholz-Haskin submitted to the city council a budget proposal for the $100,000 grant, of which the largest line item is her own pay: $23,700 for part-time work as executive director until July, at a rate of about $42 an hour.
The next largest line item is about $20,000 for television advertising. Outlined in the budget is also about $15,000 for repairing or replacing more than 500 neighborhood watch signs across the city and about $11,000 for the nonprofit’s three to five year strategic planning.
Fresno Police and Neighborhood Watch is also looking to put on a slew of events with the grant funds, including five to 10 monthly meetings in collaboration with the police department’s crime prevention officers, where residents will “learn surveillance and communication strategies to reduce and prevent crime in their homes and neighborhoods.”
The nonprofit is also planning an annual luncheon with police leadership in attendance, and also multiple annual open house events for local watch group members to meet each other.
Wienholz-Haskin said she acknowledges how neighborhood watch groups are associated with vigilantism and racism, referencing the killings of Trayvon Martin in 2012 and Ahmaud Arbery in 2020. She said her organization specifically focuses on connecting residents with each other in order to have a better sense of what’s going on in the community.
“We preach that just because someone is different, doesn’t mean that they’re the bad guy, but you want to pay attention long enough because what if they are, right?” she said. “If they’re just genuinely walking to someone’s house, don’t harass anyone, but just keep your eyes open.”
The more than 150 watch groups across the city are focused on their local block and have recurring neighborhood meetings. Each group has their own method for neighbors to communicate with each other and if a situation permits, a member of a watch group could either alert other members of their watch group or call the police, Wienholz-Haskin said.
“We’re aware of all the baggage that comes with the term neighborhood watch. We’re aware of the police brutality, the defund the police — we get that,” Wienholz-Haskin said. “But there’s also bad things happening. So how do we help them, educate them to do this responsibly?”
