Dogs add bite to crime watch

From a distance, the dogs who frequent Ringer Park look like an ordinary pack of pups: pedigreed purebreds romping with mystery mutts, dust-mop terriers yipping at big mellow Labs. But if you spend time with Dart and Oliver and Pretzel and Jerry, a more serious side emerges. For the past year and a half these canines -- whether they know it or not -- have been fighting crime along with their owners as part of the Ringer Playground Crime Watch.

''We're really the major, consistent group that is here in the park all year round," says co-organizer Jonathan Ralton, 25, as Bailey the beagle roughhouses with friends. ''In the winter, we have to come out, and the dogs have to go. So we're here, even if no one else is."

Formed in the summer of 2003, the Crime Watch now has about 70 human members and their collared companions. Most of them also belong to the less formal Ringer Playground Dog Park Group, which is working with the city to designate part of the park for dogs.

Whatever the official mission, the goal for both groups is the same: Make Ringer Park a safer, cleaner, and friendlier place for two- and four-footed visitors alike, after years of decline and, briefly, front-page infamy after the 1995 rape and murder of a 22-year-old Irish student, Orla Benson.

For the past few years, ''It wasn't like it was a danger zone, but people wouldn't walk through at night," says Ralton. ''Some people are still concerned." The frequent presence of crime watch members walking their dogs, he says, has helped make the park feel safer.

A professional crime fighter who was around during those bad old days agreed the place has improved.

''It was kind of seedy, run-down," says Boston Police Sergeant William Fogerty, who has worked out of the District 14 station in Brighton for 12 years. ''We had some problems there with some homeless people that had taken up residence; the kids used to drink there. This hasn't all gone away, but it has become better."

Normally, crime watches in Boston (there are more than 1,000) focus on a block or two, but the Ringer Park dogs and dog-lovers bit off a little bit more: not just the park itself, which includes a playground, a ball field, and a small corner of urban wild at its southern end, but also several residential blocks around it. This widening of scope was vital, says Ralton, because the park has often been used as a launching point or getaway route for break-ins and vandalism and because disturbances in the park have an adverse affect on the quality of life of its neighbors.

Has it worked? Yes, says Ralton, who points to several park cleanups by both groups; the identification of vandals who regularly destroyed security lights; and the eviction of vagrants who used the wooded area as a campground, scattering trash, human waste, and drug paraphernalia.

Members have also met with police officers to clarify jurisdiction issues, and they know to call a special number on their cellphones (617-343-4911, the Boston Police Department's 911 for cellphone users), if they see anything amiss.

As for the dogs' role in all this, ''I wouldn't really call them natural crime fighters. But they do have a good sense of people who don't belong. I would honestly say that," says Jason Gould, 33, who lives nearby with his wife and their shepherd/collie/chow mix, Pallas. ''Not that they go out and chase after people, but they change their expression or their orientation, [as if to say,] 'Something's not right with that person.' "

A karate instructor and former Marine, Gould avoids physical confrontations but has found that his vocal cords alone -- ''Get out of the park!" -- can work wonders in clearing out troublemakers.

''We want to make sure that people recognize that this is a place to come," he says, reverting to his civilian voice. ''It's really nice to go to a park and be proud of that."

And to find an open, quiet space where Allstonians can meet their neighbors and fellow dog-lovers, such as Beth Gentner, 24, an opera singer and office worker who visits the park with her 2-year-old golden retriever, Bella.

''It gives the dogs an opportunity to run around, and it's a good group that can socialize and at the same time accomplish something. It's wonderful," says Gentner. ''It's great for the dogs and great for the people."

''They typify what a Crime Watch group is: just a bunch of people who live in the neighborhood, who come together, all ages, all shapes, sizes, guys and gals," says Sergeant Fogerty. ''They're concerned about their neighborhood, and they want to do the best that they can with it."

Will Kilburn can be reached at wkilburn@globe.com.