Residents share worries with police chief

Seymour Police Chief Bill Abbott was surprised and encouraged by the number of people who attended a town hall meeting he organized Wednesday night to discuss how to make the city safer.

Around 20 residents filled the Community Center in downtown Seymour to ask questions, to get answers and to take action on crime and other issues in their neighborhoods.

Dressed in jeans and a button-down shirt, Abbott said he wanted the meeting to be "very informal and friendly.""I wanted to get more people involved in what's going on in our community," Abbott said.

He addressed a number of individual questions, some coming from a group of residents who live on Skaggs Court on the north side of the city and others coming from a resident in the Oak Street neighborhood on the south side. Another couple addressed issues in the downtown.

"We've got some hot spots that we are working on in those areas, but there is a lot more work that needs to be done," Abbott said. "But unless I get you people involved in helping us, then often there's not a lot we can do."

Some of the topics discussed were theft of utilities, noise, gang-related activity, disorderly conduct, vandalism, drugs and illegal immigration.

Skaggs Court residents brought up the idea of organizing neighborhood watch groups, which Abbott supported. They said they planned to get signs up in their neighborhood and be more aggressive in making their area safer.

"I will get working on that tomorrow and get some information together for you on how to go about it," he said. "I'll help you every step of the way."

Abbott said he planned to hold a similar meeting every month and hoped to see more people show up.

Also attending Wednesday's meeting were Assistant Police Chief Craig Hayes, Jackson Superior Court II Judge Bruce MacTavish and Seymour Common Councilman Jim Lucas.