Scottsdale Republic
November 20, 2006
by Carol Sowers

Bank helps retirement homes with anti-crime program

Scottsdale – Senior Crimestoppers, a national program that has curbed theft and mistreatment in nursing homes and retirement villages, is pushing into the Valley with the help of a $3 million grant from Scottsdale’s Legacy Bank.
 
A retirement village in Scottsdale, two in the West Valley and one in Phoenix are the first to get financial help with their crime-stopper programs.  Legacy is supporting the four programs.
 
Since the Memphis-based program began in 2002, it has reduced reports of theft, abuse and neglect of senior citizens in retirement settings by 90 percent, said Terry Rook, president of the Senior Crimestoppers Foundation.
 
In the past six years, 1,000 retirement facilities in 15 states have signed onto the program, which allows seniors and retirement facility staffers to make anonymous calls to report theft, which is the most common complaint, and vandalism, abuse, fraud and neglect.  Anonymity ensures that tipsters won’t face retaliation, officials say.
 
The tips have let to up to $1,000 rewards, arrests and staff dismissals nationwide.  The brainchild of the National Bank of Commerce in Memphis, the program is underwritten by banks nationwide.
 
Legacy Bank, with branches at Scottsdale Airpark and at Pinnacle Peak and Pima roads, is the first Arizona bank to sign on.
 
“We were looking for a community reinvestment, and this was a good one,” said Jan McDowell, Legacy’s executive vice president and chief financial officer.   “We like the idea of security for residents who might not be able to provide it for themselves.”
 
Federal law requires banks to reinvest in their communities to benefit low- or moderate-income residents,” Rook said.
 
McDowell said the $3 million would continue to grow and provide grants for more Senior Crimestoppers programs in Arizona.
 
So far, Legacy Bank has funded programs at: Scottsdale’s Westminster Village, 90th Street and Cactus Road; Baptist Village Cook Health Care, Youngtown; Baptist Village Sun Ridge, Surprise; and Arizona Grand, 4602 N. 24th Street, Phoenix.
 
The money, which pays the $96 monthly Crimestoppers fee, was a surprise to Jim Fetterman, security chief of the 350-resident Westminster Village.
 
“We had been paying our monthly fee since Oct. 1, 2001,” he said.  “Then we got the grant.”
 
Since Westminster joined Senior Crimestoppers, staffers and residents have made eight to 10 reports, Fetterman said.  Some tips were unconfirmed.  But in 2002 a Westminster tipster received a $400 Crimestoppers award for reporting that staff members were stealing from a resident.  They were jailed.  In another case, a staff member was fired after Crimestoppers received a tip that he was making long-distance calls during work.
 
“Crimestoppers gave us the tip,” Fetterman said.   “We checked our phone records, and he was fired.”
 
Vern Bathurst, 81, and his wife, Carolyn, 79 have lived in Westminster Village for more than six years.
 
Bathurst, who headed the U.S. Soil Conservation Center in Arizona, said, “It is a comfort to know that there is something like Senior Crimestoppers.
 
“It keeps you on alert.  You notice if someone’s door is ajar, and it makes you more considerate of the fact that you are far more susceptible to crime and less able to defend yourself.”
 
 
 

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