Cut Down Preventable Burglaries in The Woodlands; Join the 9 p.m. Routine

THE WOODLANDS, TX -- The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office invites you to join the 9 p.m. routine, an initiative that reminds participants to remove belongings from their vehicles and lock their cars and homes every night at 9 p.m. The reminders are posted on the Sheriff’s Office’s social media accounts, alongside fun, entertaining pictures.

“The Sheriff’s Office is committed to engaging our community through any methods at our disposal, including social media,” said Lieutenant Scott Spencer. “We have a robust social media following and this is just one of the tools we are using to educate and reach our community about reducing crime,” he said.

The 9 p.m. routine was created by the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office in 2017. Since then, it’s gone viral, achieving national and even international recognition; Law Enforcement Agencies from around the country have joined the movement. Lieutenant Spencer said that the Sheriff’s Office saw it as an innovative way to educate and reach the community.

“Community Policing includes both the components of Community Oriented Policing (COP) and Problem Oriented Policing (POP), which Sheriff Henderson implemented when he took office in 2017,” Lieutenant Spencer said. COP is the philosophy that the entire community is responsible for order, and law enforcement officers are merely entrusted with this responsibility full-time.

“The goal is for us as a community and a team to cut down on preventable burglaries … We can work together as a team to reduce crime and the fear of crime in our community,” Lieutenant Spencer said.