Shomrim (volunteers)

Shmira (, 'protection') or Shomrim (Hebrew: שׁוֹמְרִים, 'watchers', 'guards') are organizations of proactive volunteer Jewish civilian patrols which have been set up in Haredi communities in neighborhoods across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Israel, Belgium, and Australia (among other countries) to combat burglary, vandalism, mugging, assault, domestic violence, nuisance crimes and antisemitic attacks, and to help and support victims of crime. They also help locate missing people.

Shmira and Shomrim volunteers are generally unarmed and do not have the authority to make arrests, other than citizen's arrest. Some Shomrim members in the United States have been convicted of assaults and misdemeanors against people from outside their community.Feuer, Alan.
Brooklyn’s Private Jewish Patrols Wield Power. Some Call Them Bullies.
''The New York Times'', 17 June 2016.

In Brooklyn, Baltimore, and London, many residents call Shmira or Shomrim prior to the police due to the former's shorter response time. However, Shomrim in New York has been criticised by the New York City Police Department for not always notifying police when a call comes in. In London, however, the Hackney Police Borough Commander Chief Superintendent Matthew Horne complimented Shomrim on this point, saying that "they will generally know when is the time to call us. They don't tend to waste our time and they don't let people go".

Shomrim organisers in Brooklyn have been accused of withholding information on suspected child molesters and other Jewish criminals, in keeping with an interpretation of the Torah prohibition against ''mesirah'' (informing on a fellow Jew to the non-Jewish authorities).

History

The forerunner of the Shomrim was the Maccabees, a Jewish patrol organization founded by Samuel Schrage in 1964 in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn. While initially successful, it was disbanded at the end of the decade due to political pressure amid allegations of lack of oversight and tense relations with the African American community.

The Shomrim patrol groups were first established in the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Borough Park, Crown Heights, Flatbush, and Williamsburg in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Similar patrols were later established in Haredi neighborhoods in Monsey, New York; Baltimore, Maryland; Miami, Florida; Waterbury, Connecticut; and London, United Kingdom.

Volunteers

Shomrim volunteers, who are unpaid, are mostly members of the Haredi Jewish communities that they serve; however, around 70% of the victims they help are not from the Orthodox Jewish community, usually just local residents from any race or religion. Despite previous reports, London Shomrim does not require that its members must be Jewish, male, employed or married, according to Stamford Hill Shomrim volunteer Michael Scher. In Brooklyn, Shomrim members, according to their coordinator, are fingerprinted and checked for a criminal record before being allowed to join the patrol. In Stamford Hill, London, Shomrim volunteers undergo training according to Security Industry Authority standards and are CRB checked prior to joining as a volunteer.

Shomrim volunteers – who range from a few dozen to over 100, depending on the group – work on foot or in cars. Generally, members work two to a vehicle that is equipped with a radio and a siren. However, the UK divisions of Shomrim do not have audible or visual warning equipment ( blues-and-twos) fitted in their vehicles. Some Brooklyn patrols have marked cars which resemble New York City Police Department (NYPD) vehicles, but most use their own, unmarked cars. The patrols also carry walkie-talkies. They wear identifying jackets and yarmulkes on the job.

The volunteers, says a coordinator, do not carry guns, batons, pepper spray, or handcuffs, and do not have the authority to make arrests. However, they are trained in how to safely track and detain suspects until police arrive, otherwise known as citizen's arrest. They have been known to quickly mobilize area residents to block off streets in order to stop suspects.

Operations

Each group maintains its own dispatchers and 24-hour hotlines, whose numbers are known throughout the Orthodox Jewish community.

Volunteers respond to a wide variety of crimes and cases, including reports of purse snatching, vandalism, car and bicycle thefts, and missing people. Volunteers patrol the city streets in the overnight hours as a deterrent presence. When they are not on duty, they remain on call,"This is an Emergency!: An interview with Chaim Deutsch of Flatbush Shomrim Safety Patrol", ''Binah Bunch'', 4 February 2008, pp. 14–15. and are often summoned to help other patrol groups or other Jewish community rescue organizations such as Hatzalah and Chaverim during large-scale search and rescue operations.

Shmira and Shomrim have been effective in apprehending suspects of burglaries robberies, assault, car thefts, vandalism, domestic violence, nuisance crimes, and antisemitic attacks. In an incident in 2010, four Brooklyn South Shomrim volunteers suffered gunshot wounds after an incident involving a suspicious man. The Shomrim reported seeing the man leering at young girls the previous week. The four Shomrim volunteers tackled the man, beginning a physical altercation. The man and all four Shomrim received bullet wounds. The man was later acquitted of all charges except possessing a gun. Following that incident, the Brooklyn South Shomrim were issued bullet-proof vests by the New York State Senate.

Shomrim volunteers have occasionally been criticized for using excessive force with suspects, particularly non-Jews. In 1996 a Crown Heights Shomrim volunteer was convicted of assault charges after repeatedly hitting a suspect on the head with a walkie-talkie after the man had been subdued. In 2010, a Baltimore Shomrim volunteer, an ex-Israeli Special Forces soldier, was arrested for striking a black 15 year old. The boy had been walking along a road in the early afternoon when a van with males started to drive next to him. The boy, who the judge said was frightened, took a nail-studded board from a construction site. The ex-soldier hit him with a walky-talky and, with help from two others, held the boy on the ground for 8 to 10 minutes. He was suspended pending internal investigation, with Shomrim confident that he would be vindicated in court, and was sentenced to three years of probation in 2012 and ordered to research and write essays on cultural diversity. In 2011, two Monsey Shomrim volunteers were charged with misdemeanors in a fracas that erupted after a girl hit a passing van with a water balloon.

Many Shmira and Shomrim organisations call together an annual Community Engagement Event, with advice on crime prevention and bike registration. The latter process has been instrumental in reuniting stolen bicycles with their owners through registration numbers which are etched into the bicycle frame.

Police relations and controversy

Shomrim and Shmira maintain a strong working relationship with local police departments and regularly share their information on crime with officers.

The relationship is a sensitive one, however. Many residents of Hasidic neighborhoods in Brooklyn, Baltimore, and Stamford Hill tend to call Shmira or Shomrim in an emergency rather than the police. The groups cite their faster response times, knowledge of their territories, and ability to speak Yiddish, the language of the Hasidic community, for the residents' preference.

While the expectation is for Shomrim to notify police, this is done in some cases but not in others. Former New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly has publicly stated that Shomrim does not immediately notify police when a call comes in. This was highlighted in the 2011 missing-child case of Leiby Kletzky (see below): the first call by Kletzky's mother reporting her missing child was received by Brooklyn South Shomrim more than two hours before Kletzky's father called the police. The Brooklyn South Shomrim explains that it does not always notify police immediately in cases of missing children, since it receives at least 10 such calls a day and is experienced in quickly locating children by searching candy stores, buses, and relatives' homes. In London, however, the Hackney Police Borough Commander Chief Superintendent Matthew Horne complimented Shomrim on this point, saying that "they will generally know when is the time to call us. They don't tend to waste our time and they don't let people go".

In Brooklyn, Shomrim has been accused of withholding information about suspected local child molesters. One Brooklyn South Shomrim member acknowledged to the press that they maintain a file of suspected local child molesters, and some believe that this file includes the suspects' photos and the make, model and license-plate number of their cars. But Shomrim does not share this information with police due to the Torah prohibition against ''mesirah'' (informing on a fellow Jew to the non-Jewish authorities). However, another high-ranking member claims that the other member was misquoted, and that the list that Brooklyn South Shomrim maintains is culled from the New York Sex Offender Registry. Members of the Williamsburg Shomrim always consult a rabbi before involving police in a crime committed by one Jew against another.

Shomrim and Shmira have on many occasions received awards and commendations from the police for their work.

The founding of Shomrim organizations in North West London and Stamford Hill in 2008 initially met with disapproval by the London Metropolitan Police, which questioned the existence of a community patrol working in tandem with trained police officers and claimed they were endangering themselves. In 2009, a new borough commander in Hackney Chief Superintendent Steve Bending consulted with the NYPD to draw up a list of expectations for the volunteer patrol. The Stamford Hill Shomrim and the North West London Shomrim agreed to have its members undergo background checks and sign a code of conduct, and pledged to implement disciplinary measures for members who "act inappropriately". Today the Hackney borough commander commends Shomrim in its role as "evidence-gathers" and support for police activities. and they have received public praise from the higher ranks. including most recently Stamford Hill Shomrim received a formal commendation award from the local Metropolitan Police Borough Commander

Stamford Hill Shomrim members receive ongoing training from the Police at Stoke Newington Police Station and are kept updated about new, targeted police operations in the area.

Funding

Shomrim and Shmira organizations receive voluntary donations mostly from members of the Orthodox Jewish Community they serve.

Both Shmira and Shomrim groups have been successful at securing taxpayer funding in member earmarks for their operations, allowing them to buy sophisticated equipment. Commentators cite the groups' effectiveness and also their political clout as a voting bloc that follows rabbis' direction.

List of Shmira and Shomrim organizations

New York City

Boro Park Shmira Public Safety

Boro Park Shmira patrols Borough Park and surrounding areas including Kensington, Bay Ridge, and Bensonhurst. It was founded in 2010 by Levi Leifer and has over 200 members who respond to emergency calls including robberies, shoplifting, assaults, vehicle theft, vandalism, missing persons, burglaries, and sex crimes among others.

Shmira maintains a highly sophisticated surveillance and investigation division where highly trained volunteers perform duties which include tracking suspects, investigating crimes, and assisting local detectives in solving complex crimes.

In 2022, Shmira was in the headlines after volunteers successfully caught and disbanded multiple catalytic converter theft rings operating in and around the area, gaining praise from both the police and residents alike.

Brooklyn South Shomrim

The Shomrim-run Brooklyn South Safety Patrol (BSSP), which covers the neighborhoods of Boro Park, Bensonhurst, and Kensington, has its origins in the 1980s when it was founded by Jacob Daskal. In the beginning the group was known as the "Bakery Boys" as its members were bakers who observed late-night car break-ins in progress. Its command center is located in a tire shop. The dispatchers, owners of the tire shop, receive about 20 calls a day and direct a force of 150 members.

Brooklyn South Shomrim came to international attention as the coordinator of a massive volunteer search for Leiby Kletzky, an 8-year-old Boro Park boy who went missing while walking home from day camp in July 2011; he was later found murdered by a Kensington resident. The Brooklyn South command center alerted other Shomrim patrols in Flatbush, Williamsburg, and Crown Heights, as well as Haredi communities in Monsey, Monroe, Lawrence, Passaic

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