GOOD NEIGHBORS HELP KEEP DRUG DEALERS AT BAY

It's encouraging to read stories such as the one last week about a group of
Pocatellans banding together and ejecting a methamphetamine operation from
their neighborhood.

Fortunately, stories like that are becoming more common. Area residents are
growing less and less tolerant of drugs and the people who make and sell them.

Unfortunately, that sort of citizen action is still the exception. Too
often, people are willing to turn away while a house down their street
operates as a lair for dealers, users and manufacturers.

What Pocatello needs is more people intolerant of the impacts drugs are
having on our community. We need more people willing to stand up to defend
their neighborhoods from drug infiltration.

We certainly don't condone private citizens jeopardizing their own safety,
nor do we promote the invasion of another's privacy, but when a clear and
obvious threat to a neighborhood exists, something should be done. One
Harrison Avenue neighbor simply recorded the different license plates on
cars visiting a nearby home. Armed with that information, police were able
to formally investigate a complaint. The result was ideal - a meth dealer
was eliminated from the neighborhood and the once-common criminal element
has forsaken that area.

Area police are there to help, with information needed on Neighborhood
Watch programs and advice on the proper steps residents can take to
successfully eliminate shady elements from their neighborhoods.

It seems that just about every neighborhood in town is at least lightly
polluted by drugs and their trickle-down impacts. Since January, police
have cleared out dozens of potentially lethal meth labs operated in
basements, kitchens and bathtubs, next door to families with children, near
schools and in the midst of seemingly quiet, well-ordered parts of town.
While it might seem a bit "Big Brother-ish" to encourage neighbors to spy
on those living near them, keeping a watchful eye on surrounding houses can
reveal a lot about a neighborhood and the people who live in it. Pocatello
needs its caring residents to take an active role in policing their own
neighborhoods.

Give the police a call for information. Equipped with some advice and a
little cooperation from neighbors, a well-meaning resident can do some
pretty great things.