Day or night, cars, homes and garages are broken into throughout the city of Ironton.

But enough is enough, according to Chad Gue, Ironton Police Department patrolman, who said it’s time to take back the town.

At 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 6, a meeting will be at Ironton High School for those interested in starting a neighborhood watch group.

This will be the second such meeting headed by the IPD, the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office and the prosecutor’s office.

Gue said the aim of the meeting is to encourage people to emerge as leaders for their individual neighborhoods.

“We want to build awareness so that everyone knows how to create their own neighborhood watch programs,” Gue said. “We hope we can create leaders out of our meetings to take the initiative and to go to their neighbors and create a phone tree, and in return, we are going to work as a liaison with them.”

Gue has also created a Facebook page, Ironton Citizens Watch, for people to use as a way to get the word out about suspicious activity.

As of Friday, there were 152 members of the group.

“We would like to see 1,000 just because the more people we can communicate with, the better opportunity we are going to have to be able to create safer neighborhoods for our kids, for out community,” Gue said. “Better communication between neighbors means anything that is out of place, it’s going to show up a lot quicker. A lot more people are going to be taking note.”

In the long run, creating neighborhood watch programs throughout the city should create a community of vigilant citizens with their eyes on the streets.

“If I can get enough eyes out there, to where they will all just start calling each other, ‘Hey did you see that blue truck at the end of the block?’ I’m hoping eventually that will take off to where its just common practice for everyone and everyone just takes their part,” Gue said.

Gue said break-ins are a daily occurrence in the city and some nights, he has seen from 20 to 30 cars broken into in one night.

“Make sure your home, your car, everything you have is locked up,” Gue said. “Never leave anything of value in your vehicle. Nothing at all. Something as small as a watch or a purse, never leave it in there. Leave it in your home secure and make sure all your doors are locked every single day.”