Published: July 23, 2008 12:26 pm            

The hero of Hartsdel

Batman may be all the buzz right now, but he isn’t the only citizen turned crime fighter who’s making a difference. Bobbie Fry of Del City is proving that you don’t have to be a billionaire or own every possible gadget to reduce crime in a community, and she doesn’t even wear a mask.

Her method, energizing her community and forming a neighborhood watch. She says it’s the first in the state.

“If you come in the neighborhood, be aware, we are watching you,” Fry said about her Hartsdel addition, located on Bryant between 29 Street and 44 Street.

Fry is a second generation crime fighter. Her father was a cop in Tennessee. When she moved to Oklahoma over thirty years ago, she came into an area that was prone to unlawful acts. Burglary was rampant. The final straw was when she interrupted a would-be thief trying to force his way into her home one morning.

It was after this that she began to organize the watch. She set up liaison with the local government and even went all the way to contacting Washington, D.C. in order to receive information on the national neighborhood watch program.

The first meeting drew over 90 concerned citizens she said. The response was overwhelming. But with great power comes great responsibility, and she, along with what she dubbed “The First Responders of Hartsdel,” had the responsibility to reduce crime.

“We cut crime, and that’s what our objective was,” Fry said.

According to statistics provided from the time, this band of concerned neighbors succeeded in their goal. Crime statistics in their community dropped across the board. Newspaper articles from the time claim that the area’s crime dropped from 60 to 70 percent within just one year.

With all the success this program was having, it wasn’t long before other communities were calling and trying to get Fry’s help. In 1978, just one year after the program got started, word had spread all the way to California. A police officer on the west coast contacted Fry trying to get her input on what could be done in his community.

According to Fry, for a neighborhood watch to be successful, it has to be taylor made to each specific community. No one approach will work everywhere.

The approach that she created for Hartsdel was called the block watch. The small jurisdictions created areas where neighbors knew each other and safety came with this intimacy. Because, according to Fry, “It takes a community to run a city.”

In the block watch system, different parts of the neighborhood were divided between residents and responsibility was spread out between many people. This helped to prevent the neighborhood watchmen and women from getting burned out from their duties.

A master of organization, Fry also compiled a wealth of information and statistics so that the watch would know what areas to specifically focus on. This, she says, is important so that the organization can tell what needs to be addressed and see if current methods are working.

Fry went on to run for city council and became involved in local politics. She thought in order to successfully do her job, she needed to be involved with the workings of her municipality.

The neighborhood watch is still in effect, but after 20 years of being an officer, Fry has taken more of a backseat in the organization. Her attention is now focused on earning an education degree from the University of Central Oklahoma, teaching preschool classes and completing a book about starting the neighborhood watch. .

The book, entitled “You Too Can Form a Neighborhood Watch,” is said to be geared toward toward what the Hartsdel watch did in the past and it also serves as a how-to guide for others wishing to set up a watch, Fry said. No release date is set for the book yet as Fry is still working to gather all the information while maintaining a limited number of pages.

She’s still involved in the watch, and she’ll organize an emergency meeting if the need arises. Which she did recently after a spike of crimes. So burglar beware, if you mess with Hartsdel, you may awake a sleeping giant.

        

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