NEWBERRY — The Newberry County Sheriff’s Office will hold a community crime watch meeting at the St. Phillips Lutheran Church Family Life Center at 7 p.m. Sept. 14.
“The people of the St. Phillips community asked us to hold this meeting, that is why we chose the church as our location,” Sheriff Lee Foster said. “We offer this program for any community. Communities typically request it because they have an interest in crime prevention.”
Law enforcement personnel from the detective division and the COPS (Community Oriented Police) Division will be on hand to speak with the community and answer any questions about crimes, technology, ways to protect yourself and other topics.
“One area that we will discuss is how to lower being the victim of a crime, especially property crime,” Foster said. “We will also discuss what people can do when they go somewhere, like Columbia, and decrease the chances of being a victim.”
Foster said some of the questions during these meetings are about lawfully carrying a firearm and self defense.
“We also receive questions about alarm systems. While we do not recommend any specific system we will go over various types of alarms,” Foster said.
Foster also predicts there will be questions about scams and identity theft, particularly after the scams that took place last week that demanded residents used gift cards to pay their bills.
St. Phillips is located at 2461 St. Phillips Church Road in Newberry. The meeting will begin promptly at 7 p.m. and should end by 8 p.m. This is the third community crime watch meeting the Sheriff’s Office has held, the first two being in Whitmire and Silverstreet.