By Mark Robinsonz

Continuing to deter criminal activity throughout Carmel will be a key topic when Mayor Jim Brainard and other officials host a Feb. 25 meeting for city neighborhood associations and crime watch liaisons.

Brainard will be joined at the open meeting by Police Chief Tim Green, City Engineer Jeremy Kashman and Lt. Joe Bickel, the Carmel Police Dept. public information officer. They will use the platform to discuss achievements attained in 2014 and fill in neighborhood and business representatives on plans for their respective departments in 2015.

For Bickel, it provides a great opportunity to give all of the participating neighborhood and business crime watch groups an update on hot topics from last year and trends and special events for this year, with an eye toward closer working relationships.

“It’s a real good way for us to share information with the public and for people to be informed on what’s going on within the city and maybe even their own neighborhood or business district,” he said.

Bickel said there are 135 neighborhood associations participating in the crime watch program out of 394 subdivisions within Carmel. He said 27 businesses participate in the commercial crime watch. He would like to see both those numbers increase and encouraged representatives from neighborhoods and businesses not currently involved in the crime watch program to attend the meeting and learn more.

“If people are interested in (joining crime watch), they can come hear about it and other things going on in the city,” Bickel said, “They can also ask questions during my presentation or the chief’s presentation. It’s kind of an open forum because I know typically the mayor and the chief field a lot of questions during the meeting.”

The meeting is set for 6-8 p.m. Feb. 25 in the second floor Council Chambers of Carmel City Hall, 1 Civic Square.