Fed up with crime in their otherwise-quiet neighborhood, Doug Louviere and his neighbors have decided to take matters into their own hands.

Several residents of Boas Avenue and surrounding streets near New Iberia City Park have banded to form a neighborhood watch group.

Louviere said the decision came after four burglaries in the neighborhood in the past few months, including two home invasions in the past two weeks.

Doug Louviere walks near his Boas Avenue home carrying his trademark baseball bat. A rash of burglaries in his neighborhood sparked several folks to begin a watch area. - Lee Ball / The Daily Iberian Advertisement

“It’s been pretty bad down our street,” Louviere said. “I’ve been in the neighborhood 19 years, and this is the worst I’ve ever seen it.”

In one of the burglaries, a thief broke into a residence while a couple was sleeping and stole a purse, he said. Three days later, a man broke into a neighbor’s house in the middle of the night, only to run off when she confronted him.

“It has alarmed the neighborhood,” said another neighbor, Ann Clasen. “We’re all on the lookout.”

After the most recent burglary attempt, Louviere and neighbor Jessica Ditch petitioned several residents about forming a neighborhood watch group.

The group meets for the first time this week.

Until then, Louviere said has been walking the streets with a baseball bat several nights a week. He said other neighbors have made similar patrols to discourage crime in the neighborhood.

“We just hope the people know we’re watching,” Louviere said. “We want to let them know if they come and try to steal, we’re going to catch them.”

At least one was caught Friday when Louviere was getting his photo taken. A couple of children were walking down Louviere’s street, one on a bike, another on foot. After one of the boys made a dash for something under a neighbor’s carport, Louviere chased him down and detained him until the police came.

Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Office Community Services Director Audrey Thibodeaux said there were 27 neighborhood watch programs in the parish when she joined the sheriff’s office in 2004, though she was not sure how many of those were still active.

She said she has made presentations to nine other neighborhoods since then.

The National Sheriffs’ Association created the National Neighborhood Watch Program in 1972 in an effort to unite law enforcement agencies and individual citizens to reduce residential crime.

Members are encouraged to stay alert to suspicious activity and contact local law enforcement.

“It’s about neighbors looking out for neighbors,” Thibodeaux said.

“There’s not enough law enforcement anywhere to protect every single human being. It takes a certain individual responsibility to take care of safety and security.”

Thibodeaux said the program calls on members to safeguard their own homes and the homes of neighbors.

Members are encouraged to lock their doors and windows, eliminate hiding places on their property and alert each other when they plan to leave town.

The program also gives members basic information about how to identify a suspect. It encourages them to call law enforcement when they see any suspicious activity.

“A lot of times, people looking to do petty crimes are looking for an easy mark,” Thibodeaux said. “If they see people looking out for each other, they won’t come back.”

Concerned West End residents pledged to form neighborhood watch groups last month at a meeting with law enforcement and elected officials, Thibodeaux said.

The groups selected block captains in the area and plan to meet with Thibodeaux to start neighborhood watch programs on their streets.

New Iberia Police Liaison Quinten Adcock, who attended the meeting, said he previously worked with several neighborhood watch programs when he was an officer for the New Iberia Police Department.

Adcock said he relied heavily on tips from neighborhood watch groups as a narcotics officer.

“I think that neighborhood watch can be extremely effective if the group of people are really energetic about controlling the crime in the neighborhood,” he said.

Residents interested in starting a neighborhood watch program in their neighborhood can contact the Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Office Community Services Division at 560-4319.