Wilton Select Board member Mike Wells, center, discusses with the board via Zoom the need for a neighborhood watch group in Wilton on Tuesday, April 4. Based on his conversations with law enforcement, there is a rise in drug trafficking in Wilton. Brian Ponce/Franklin Journal

WILTON — Wilton Select Board member Mike Wells spoke to the Select Board Tuesday, April 4, about the need to bring the Neighborhood Watch program to Wilton.

“We’ve got to do something really quickly about the drug trade that’s occurring in the town of Wilton,” Wells addressed to the board via Zoom. “One of the best concepts is to form a neighborhood watch, where we get out the signage and the Wilton PD website is updated so that there’s some sort of link that they can get tips.”

The Neighborhood Watch program came to prominence in the 1960s, with the modern iteration developed as a result of sheriffs and police chiefs around the country seeking a crime prevention program using citizen involvement.

In 1972, the National Sheriffs’ Association [NSA] found funding to make the program a national initiative. With the help of grant funding from the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, the National Neighborhood Watch Program began.

Since its inception, the program has evolved to promote the establishment of ongoing local groups that encourage citizens to partner with their law enforcement agencies to reduce local crime.

“It lets the drug dealers in the town know that whoever’s out there dealing, buying, selling, transporting that they’re being watched,” Wells said.

Select person Tiffany Maiuri added to the discussion that she recently went on a ride-along with an officer of the Wilton Police Department and shared with the board her observations.

“I was absolutely shocked to see the explosion of drug traffic in our town,” Maiuri stated. “You could just go back to the same places over and over again. There’s no shortage of being able witness [drug trafficking]. It was right out in the open.”

Chairperson David Leavitt asked Wells if training would be involved in the program.

“It’s a little weak,” Wells said on the training provided on the national website. “I think our police department could put together a video, and that would be posted on the Wilton PD site or even our own Town of Wilton website, that would be a lot stronger and more effective than what I’ve seen so far in the national site. But yes, there would be training involved in this.”

Wells elaborated on the type of training, which involve ways citizens can observe and gather information needed by law enforcement officials to pursue suspects, such as location, time, individual descriptions, license plate numbers, and things of that nature.

Wells hopes to update the Wilton Police Department website to enable a tip system that would go directly to on duty police officers.

“These are time sensitive tips,” Wells said. “there might be a deal going down, somebody sees it, they report it, it gets transmitted immediately to the cruiser, whoever’s on duty, or even to dispatch, and then dispatch can get a hold of our guys that are mobile.”

Wells also suggested looking into a program sponsored by the Department of Justice called “Safe Streets”, which Wells believes would benefit Wilton by adding more officers to the police force.

A motion was made to form a committee to draft a plan on how a neighborhood watch system in Wilton would function, with Wells and Maiuri attached to the committee.

A police officer and two citizens of Wilton would also be needed to complete the committee. However, Town Manager Perry Ellsworth suggested including Chief of Police Ethan Kyes and an additional officer to put together a plan.

Maiuri amended the motion and the board voted unanimously.