Chief Deputy Gordon Dibble, right, and Undersheriff Greg Walker were on hand Wednesday night at Pembroke Elementary School for an initial neighborhood watch program organized by residents of East Pembroke and attended by about dozen residents.

Dibble went over some of the crime issues and calls for service in East Pembroke and talked about what residents can do to help fight crime.

The group will meet again in about three months to talk about further actions and perhaps have another speaker in.

One thing of interest to the group was getting residential and neighborhood signs noting that neighborhood watch is active in the community.

"If somehow we can get at least 50 percent of the homes with neighborhood watch signs in the windows, they (would-be criminals) might just move on," said resident Taylor McCabe. 

Dibble encouraged residents to call in any suspicious activity or report anything that seems out of place. 

One interesting note from Dibble: If you accidentally dial 9-1-1, don't hang up, Dibble said. It's better to stay on the phone and just tell the dispatcher, "oops, sorry," because otherwise, dispatchers must send two patrols to the location of the 9-1-1 call to confirm the reason for the call.