Every Citizen Has a Duty to Be a Citizen - Meth Manufacturing in Iowa Down 72 Percent

A talk given by Sheriff Marty Fisher, of South, West Union Sheriff's Office,Iowa, explained the simplicity of implementing a Neighborhood Watch program.

When Fisher gave the talk on implementing a Neighborhood Watch system in Elgin, Iowa, on Monday February 5, the turn-out was low.

The turn-out was in sharp contrast to the approximately 160 that turned up to a discussion held previously at one of the Legio, according to Sarah Schori, one of the four people that were present, including the city clerk, Rhonda Dales.

Fisher explained that the program is provided by the people living in the neighborhood.

"We at law enforcement work with them, but it is totally organized by citizens," he said. "It is not expensive to set up, people volunteer to correspond with each other and if they see any illegal activities they inform the police," he added.
Elgin used to have its own police department. There are six other cities in the county that don't have law enforcement. Fisher's department answers emergency calls for the county.

Fisher said that the number of police stations has decreased since the 1970s when he first came here.

"There used to be 11 cities with officers, now there are 4 cities in Fayette county,because of cutbacks," he said. "I remember when Elgin had 4 part-time officers. After 9/11 the state of Iowa reduced that number. West Union had five officers and that went to four. Olwein also reduced," he explained.

There are now 11 officers in Wineshiek, 12 in Clayton County and eight in Fayette county. "But we are always going to respond and do the best we can," he said.

"Clermont has a very good Neighborhood Watch system," Fisher said. "We took down three different Meth labs in that city [tiny village] and that's how it came about. I'd like to see this happening in all of them," he pointed out.

Elgin is one of the cities that do not have their own police presence. Fisher explained how citizens need to get involved in their own city, even though they don't have a police force.