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Neighborhood Watch
Nothing fights crime like a community working together. When neighbors organize and help the police watch over their community, it can make a significant impact on reducing crime for the whole neighborhood.
What a Neighborhood Watch Does
The typical Watch program involves four ways to make your neighborhood safer:
1. Residents watch over each other and the neighborhood, noting and reporting anything unusual or suspicious to the local authorities, including:
- Screams or calls for help
- Someone looking into cars or homes
- A stranger removing items from unoccupied homes or closed businesses
- Vehicles cruising slowly or without lights
- Anyone being forced into a vehicle
- A stranger stopping to talk to a child
2. When something suspicious is observed, contact authorities through 911 or other local emergency number:
- Quickly explain what happened.
- Give your name and address.
- Describe the suspect's gender and race, age, height, weight, hair color, clothes, and distinguishing features like facial hair, scars, tattoos, or accent.
- If a vehicle is involved, report the color, make, model, year, license plate and distinguishing features, like bumper stickers or dents.
3. Watch programs may offer programs to mark valuable items with an identifying number to discourage theft and help the police track down stolen articles.
4. Helps educated members of the watch and the neighborhood about proven techniques to make homes safer. A neighborhood of secured homes will deter burglary attempts.
First Steps
Want to start a Neighborhood Watch? An individual, community organization, or law enforcement agency can initiate a Neighborhood Watch program through a few simple steps:
- Hold a meeting to talk about crime problems and see if there is enough interest to organize a Watch.
- Arrange for local law enforcement professionals to train neighbors in home security, crime patterns, what to watch for, and how to report it.
- Select an overall coordinator and block captains to organize volunteers and establish effective communications.
- Regular meetings to keep your community organized.
- Volunteers patrolling the neighborhood, on foot or in cars, to spot and report any problems.
- Sign up volunteers, including homeowners and renters, business owners, the elderly, working parents, young people and anybody who can help.
Effective Neighborhood Watch Program Materials and Essentials
A typical Neighborhood Watch program requires:
- Special events to keep members interested and active, including educational seminars, block parties and neighborhood clean-ups. Socializing creates a sense of community, where everyone is watching out for friends, not just neighbors.
- Special safety programs to meet your community's unique needs, like a block parent program to help children during emergencies.
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