During the last couple of weeks we have been bombarded with crime watch meetings all over Miami-Dade due to neighborhood burglaries.

I congratulate the residents from Monterey Estates in Cutler Bay, the Ives Dairy NE 12 Avenue group in the Intracoastal District, the Ludlum Lakes Association in the Northwest District, Silver Palm Community down in South Dade, the JBarJ Trailer Park in the Northside District, Lake Hilda Association in Miami Lakes, the Garden Districton Miami Beach, and Blue Waters in the South District community.

These are just a few of the areas that have stepped up to the plate, and in which I have done crime watch meetings. This is not counting the ones in the Hammock, Kendall, Doral, Palmetto Bay and Midwest, where my other coordinator, Alina Lopez, has attended.

All these groups had one thing in common: lots of burglaries in their neighborhoods. Foreclosures and abandoned houses bring outsiders who are looking to steal anything. They then use these stolen goods to buy drugs. They become squatters. All these things are disrupting our quality of life.

These areas have decided to take back their neighborhoods and bring some tranquility -- with the help of their local police officers. Many were not aware of the tools they can use to help stop some of the incidents from occurring, such as when they see kids walking around during school hours. One such tool: call the police -- because the majority of the burglaries happen between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m.

But the most important lesson all these groups learned was that they need to know their neighbors, because there just aren't enough police officers to cover every block. We must be the ``eyes and ears'' of the police.

Budget cuts are creating a vacuum in Miami-Dade that our elected officials are trying their best to address. But the reality is that it's not going to get better quickly, because we have the holidays around the corner and we are going to see the usual increase in crime from that alone.

Out of curiosity, I researched what other states or cities are doing about the economic downturn, and came across some things that might be helpful here. In Columbus, Ohio, for example, the mayor proposed the creation of a Crime Prevention director and board. The money for the position and budget would come from a local option sales tax.

In Fort Worth, Texas, after 15 years, local officials aren't taking chances when it comes to renewing the local tax that pays for extra police and crime prevention programs. The crime prevention tax, first adopted in 1995, was one of several programs that helped turn Fort Worth from one of the country's most dangerous cities into one of its safest.

Everyone is thinking creatively in order to protect their neighborhoods. Neighborhood watch and community policing are the crucial component of crime prevention, so let's put on our thinking caps! Maybe we can recoup the $60,000 in funding we lost.

Until next week, be safe, be alert and stay involved.

Carmen Caldwell is executive director of the Citizens' Crime Watch of Miami-Dade. Send feedback and news for this column to her at carmen@ citizenscrimewatch.com, or call her, 305-470-1670.