Following a Tuesday night meeting with Vicksburg police to form a Neighborhood Watch, residents of the Fostoria neighborhood elected to meet more frequently to tackle criminal activity in their neighborhood.

“I think this will be effective because we have a lot of neighbors who are concerned,” said Wayne Forrest, a member of the Fostoria Neighborhood Association.

The group did not set another meeting date, but said they planned to gather more often than the previous four times annually.

About 15 members, some victims of burglaries, met with Sgt. Beverly Prentiss and community resource officer Darnisha Cash to discuss crime prevention, especially in the area of auto and home break-ins, on a rise in the past six months, police records show.

Prentiss and Cash offered safety and prevention tips, as well as phone numbers for residents to call in and report suspicious activity.

The meeting also was used as a tool to form a relationship between the police department and the community, as well as within neighbors, Prentiss said.

Members of Fostoria, the residential area along Drummond, Harris and Cherry streets and Bowmar Avenue, had called an emergency meeting June 30 after break-ins at the home of one of their neighbors were reported twice in a week.