Haifa residents seek civil guard station against rampant crime

There are many elderly residents who are fearful of leaving their homes without an escort or without a guard dog.

By MIRIAM BULWAR DAVID-HAY (TRANSLATED)
Residents of Haifa's troubled Hadar neighborhood are demanding that the city reopen the civil guard station that closed several years ago in Rehov Yalag, reports www.mynet.co.il. Residents say that closing the station was a "miserable decision" and that crime has only been growing in the neighborhood since the closure. According to the report, residents recently wrote to local police asking for the station to be reopened, saying that crimes of violence and drug use and sales had become "a terrifying phenomenon" in the neighborhood. A residents' representative said there were many elderly residents in the neighborhood, and they were fearful of leaving their homes without an escort or without a guard dog. The representative said the situation was even worse at night, with drug dealers and users carrying out deals and using drugs on streets and in house yards. "Terror roams in our neighborhood," the resident said. A police spokeswoman responded that there were still three civil guard stations in the Hadar neighborhood, and that they were "located in the right places and operating accordingly." She said no civil guard station had been closed in Hadar in recent years.