Beta Test

If you have comments on the structure, format and functional aspects of this site, please use this post for your comment. This site was conceived after the January 2008 town meeting. The plan is to share the results of the beta test with the town commissioners about a week before the February town meeting and then discuss the path forward at the meeting. Normally the meeting would be on Feb 12 , the second tuesday but that is primary elections in Maryland.

Block Captains?

A traditional neighborhood watch breaks a region into "blocks". A block is intended to be small enough that the captain can stay in touch with the residents. When the block captains then meet or communicate they can be pretty sure they are discussing the whole neighborhood. Back in 1994 Woodsboro had 12 blocks: the park, the industrial park, Copper Oaks Dr, Copper Oaks Ct, and the downtown region was broken up by streets and house numbers like "S. Main 200 & 300 blocks".

While the internet now allows everyone to communicate directly to The Watch, only an administrator can issue a new post, in other words, introduce a new subject which can then be commented on. Multiple administrators can be assigned to this blog. An administrator could be viewed as a Block Captain. They could make periodic postings commenting on the general state of things and they could bring up new issues. Just some food for thought as the potential of this site is discussed.

Sex Offender Registry tip

The Frederick County Sex Offender Registry (see the link on the right) is set up to search by zip code. It didn't work that way for me. I typed in 21798 and it listed the greater Frederick city region, several zip codes and lots of people! To narrow your search, once you have the long list of offenders up, hit Ctrl-F. That will bring up a word search window. Type in your zip code of interest to refine your search.

Sheriff Meeting

There was a public meeting with the Frederick County Sheriff last Wednesday, Jan 23rd. Here's a brief account: " The meeting went very well last night. There was approximately 30 people here and the first topic was the "little vandals". The Sheriff has agreed to have deputies in town more often and to also use unmarked and plain clothes deputies. There was also mention of possibly getting an officer on bike patrol once in a while. He encourages residents to call the Sheriff's Department with all complaints. He genuinely was concerned about the issue"

Other comments anyone?

Welcome to "The Watch"

...to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic Tranquility..........

Woodsboro is generally a beautiful and tranquil place but we have our occasional problems. This site or "blog" has been established to promote communications about those problems and in doing so, help unite our people, our elected officials and law enforcement agencies in maintaining the Woodsboro we love.

This site is intended as an electronic "neighborhood watch". Anyone can post information or comment on postings. It can be done anonymously or "in the open". Anyone can read this, anyone. The site will be edited in an attempt to keep it at a PG or better rating.

Please note that posting information about a problem or crime does not constitute notifying law enforcement. You must, and are strongly encouraged to, do that directly yourself. The benefit of posting here is to share the information with other folks and to provide data regarding possible repeat offenses or other patterns of trouble. Welcome!