By Stephanie Yrungaray | [email protected]

A visit from neighborhood watch coordinator Sue Campbell got the wheels spinning, and now the entire Deer Hollow subdivision in Draper is signed up and ready to watch out for fellow neighbors thanks to four Draper teens.

Siblings Tyler and Emily Moffat and sisters Kail and Mia Smith are all members of the Draper Mayor’s Youth Council. After hearing a presentation on neighborhood watch, the four decided to set up a neighborhood watch in their Deer Hollow subdivision.

“Each year [for youth council] they have us do a community service project,” said Emily, a junior at Corner Canyon High School. “Our friend’s car was broken into a few weeks before the project and we thought starting a neighborhood watch would be a good idea.”

The teens learned the steps to set up a neighborhood watch and got right to work.

“We planned a meeting, then made flyers and passed them out to everyone in our neighborhood, which is about 85 houses,” said Tyler, a freshman at CCHS. “We announced the meeting at different church things and sent it out in a GroupMe text.”

About 20 neighbors came to the meeting, enough to establish a captain for each of three zones.

“It was cool to see how many people were interested in having a neighborhood watch,” said Mia, a freshman at CCHS. “We had a good turnout.”

The neighbors learned about what it means to be part of a neighborhood watch.

“We went over things about the neighborhood watch and what it means to look out for each other, that kind of thing,” said Kail, a sophomore at CCHS. 

After the meeting, signs letting people know that a neighborhood watch was officially established in Deer Hollow were put up.

The teens were also recognized on Feb. 20 in a city council meeting for their efforts.

“My goal has always been to bring Draper City crime numbers down. I want Draper City to be the safest city in the state. It is not complete law enforcement responsibility — we need help from the community,” said Campbell, neighborhood watch coordinator for the Draper Police Department. “These four outstanding students got their entire subdivision involved. Eighty-four households involved. It’s pretty remarkable.”

For more information about starting a neighborhood watch where you live, contact Crime Prevention Specialist Sue Campbell at (801) 576-6342 or [email protected].