Click here for other contact numbers       Dispatch:  269-657-3101       Admin:  269-657-2006      Jail Information:  269-657-2171

Neighborhood Watch Program   Neighborhood Watch In The News  
Neighborhood Watch Benefits   5 Steps of Starting a Watch Program   
Neighborhood Watch Contact Us   Citizen Police Academy    Fingerprinting & Photo   
 McGruff - Crime Dog   STOPPED Program   STOPPED Enrollment Form   Truant Officer   TRIAD

Click on blue underlined links for more information.

    

TRIAD is a national community policing initiative wherein law enforcement professionals, senior citizens and community groups collaborate to meet the crime-safety needs of the senior community.  Triad is an action group designed to empower, educate, and improve communication with the senior community that focuses on crime, education, prevention, criminal victimization, and safety. 
     

     Click here to download a Triad Survey form. The survey results will help your Triad and S.A.L.T. Council (Seniors and Law Enforcement Together) to identify what types of criminal activity and fears affect the senior citizens that we represent in Van Buren County.  
     Please return the survey  to Jennifer Carver, Senior Services, 220 Broadway, South Haven MI  49090.  To have a S.A.L.T. volunteer pick up the survey, call 269-637-3607 or 1-866-627-8904.  To complete the survey over the phone, call 1-866-627-8904 and ask for Georgia or Lucille.

Neighborhood Watch

For over thirty years, law enforcers and their civilian partners have been working together to reduce crime and improve the quality of life in neighborhoods around the country. Today, with continued emphasis on crime reduction and the added task of fighting the war on terrorism, Neighborhood Watch is more important than ever. Throughout the country citizens are being empowered and mobilized as they participate in proactive partnerships with their local law enforcement agencies.

Traditionally, a Neighborhood Watch group is led by a community member who is actively involved and dedicated to the program. Often, these group leaders are selected because of their previous crime prevention experience and training or because of their interest in the program. Some Neighborhood Watch leaders are chosen because of their desire to reach out to and work with the community, while others were selected because of their communication skills or abilities to plan, organize and mobilize others.

The Van Buren County Sheriff’s Office provides information, literature, training, and a host of other important assets to form or revitalize a Neighborhood Watch group. Whether you are a State award winning group, such as we have in Columbia Township, or a few people meeting for the first time to discuss problems in your neighborhood, the Sheriff’s Office would like to help. Sheriff Dale Gribler has said that “They (Neighborhood Watch) have really been instrumental in helping us, my hat is definitely off to them.”

Neighborhood Watch in the News

• Neighborhood Watch named Best in State
   

• Meth Makers, Users Beware
   

• Columbia gets Neighborhood Watch Award
   

• Granholm Impressed with Area Group

Columbia Township Neighborhood Watch is the largest and most successful neighborhood watch organization in Van Buren County.  Its success has sparked other communities to start their own.


What are some of the benefits of starting a watch group?

• Improved communications with Law Enforcement

• Reduction in crime

• A more secure and better prepared hometown

• A more united community.

5 Steps to starting a Neighborhood Watch

1. Recruit and organize as many neighbors as possible

2. Contact the Van Buren County Sheriff’s Office and schedule a meeting

3. Discuss community concerns and develop an action plan

4. Hold regular meetings and train

5. Implement a phone tree and take action steps.
    

Neighborhood Watch is Homeland Security in your hometown! Meet the Challenge . . . Get Involved!

Contact for Neighborhood Watch with Van Buren County Sheriff

 Reserve Captain Rodney Bridgeforth at 269-655-6518 or email.

Bring  to your next community function!

  "The Crime Dog" is available for any community or public relations events. 

 Reserve Captain Rodney Bridgeforth at 269-655-6518 or email ... and take a BITE out of crime!

Van Buren County
Citizen Police Academy

Winter 2012

Classes held in the Lower Level of the Sheriff's Office in Paw Paw MI

The Van Buren County Sheriff’s Office is pleased to announce the Citizens Police Academy dates for 2012. The academy is for citizens of Van Buren County to become more familiar with law enforcement actives. The class will begin on Wednesday, January 25, 2012 and runs for ten weeks. If you are interested in attending the class, please complete and submit the application below. There is no cost for the class.

Click here to download a Citizen Police Academy class enrollment form.
Click here to download a printable class schedule.

Citizen Police Academy Class Schedule

Sheriff Dale R. Gribler is pleased to introduce the STOPPED
(Sheriffs Telling Our Parents and Promoting Educated Drivers) program in Van Buren County.
     A parental notification system that was developed for the state by the Michigan Sheriffs’ Association (MSA), the goal of STOPPED is to reduce the number of young drivers who are injured or killed in motor vehicle crashes each year.
     Annually over 3,000 drivers, ages 16 to 21 years old, die in the United States as a result of motor vehicle crashes.
     In Van Buren County young drivers represent 27% of all drivers involved in car crashes; however, they are only 13% of our county’s population.
     The Van Buren County Sheriffs Office is pleased to offer parents this voluntary notification system that extends their watchful eyes and raises the level of awareness for drivers under the age of 21.

On Your Mark
Parents voluntarily register with the Van Buren County Sheriffs office any motor vehicle that will
be operated by a driver under the age of 21.

Get Set...
An identification decal is issued by the Sheriffs office and should be affixed to the front windshield of each registered vehicle.

STOPPED!
If for any reason, the registered vehicle is stopped by Sheriffs deputies while a person under the age of 21 is driving, the officer will complete a notification card that provides the following information:

• Time and location of stop
• Driver’s name and the number of passengers in vehicle
• Reason for the stop
• Whether any citations were issued

The notification will then be mailed directly to the parents in order to make them aware of potential problems as well as enable them to enforce parental rules that often co-exist with teenage driving privileges.

A Driver's License Is One Of The Most Visible Symbols Of A Child's Progression Into Adulthood.

To a teenager, it means freedom, but to their parents it often means higher auto insurance rates, dented fenders, and speeding tickets. Tragically, for the parents of 434 young adults in Michigan in 2003, it meant burying a son or daughter.

Young adults are at a dangerous intersection where inexperience, risk-taking behavior, and increased risk of exposure collide. Although young adults represent less than 15% of all licensed drivers in Michigan, they are involved in almost 25% of all crashes.

As any parent of a teenager will tell you, young adults perceive and react to risks differently than older adults. At times, this is exhibited as a failure to understand danger or act appropriately. On the road, these youthful traits can turn deadly very quickly.

Just as your arms protected your child as he took his first baby steps, the STOPPED program arms you as he learns to drive.

Habits are difficult to change once set. Protect your loved one and the community by joining STOPPED today!

Click here for enrollment registration form.

For more information call: (800) 875-5500.

Sheriff Dale R. Gribler  email
Van Buren County Sheriff
 
Reserve Captain Rodney Bridgeforth email

Your teenager may borrow the keys to the family car, but you hold the keys to their future.  Please join the STOPPED program and let the Sheriff's Office become your partner in promoting young driver safety.

Michigan Office of
Highway Safety Planning

Michigan
Sheriffs’ Association