Neighborhood Watch joins communities and law enforcement in a coordinated effort to suppress crime and exchange information. An effective Watch Group is organized by concerned citizens who involve their neighbors in an effort to improve their personal and property safety.
Neighborhood Watch works because most criminals do not like to work in areas where they may be detected. A criminal's chance of being detected increases when neighbors are alert and watchful for suspicious activity.
The Neighborhood Watch Program can improve neighborhood safety in the following ways:
- Crime prevention personnel offer free home security inspections to all residents.
- Watch Group members are encouraged to mark their property with their California Drivers License Number. This practice will improve the chance of recovery if your property should be stolen.
- Crime Prevention Personnel are available to speak to your Watch Groups on a variety of topics, including personal safety, fraud, auto theft, etc.
Call the Fresno County Sheriff's Office Crime Prevention Unit at 559-292-1104 and ask for information on Neighborhood Watch. Crime Prevention personnel will come to your home to conduct a meeting. They will share with you the information you need to help reduce the chances of becoming a crime victim.
Neighborhood Watch Program
A neighborhood watch program brings together law enforcement, city officials and residents in an effort to work together to provide protection for their homes and communities. The following will explain the history of neighborhood watch programs and give you all the information that you need to get started.
1. Neighborhood Watch Program - Overview
The Neighborhood Watch Program is a successful effort that has been in effect for over thirty years in towns, cities and rural areas across the country. Based on the concept of cooperation, neighborhood watch programs bring together law enforcement, city officials and residents and ask them to work together to provide protection for their homes and communities. Crimes such as burglary, vandalism and mischief threaten every member of each community and crime watch efforts such as The Neighborhood Watch Program help discourage this type of activity. Supported by the National Sheriff's Association since 1972, the Neighborhood Watch Program is helping the public eradicate residential crime in their neighborhoods.
Also called Crime Watch, Block Watch, or Community Watch, the program's success is based on the commitment of the public and their local police department to work together to observe, report and dissuade crime in their communities. Residents not only take care of their own homes and businesses, but also those of their neighbors. By taking an active role in the protection of their families and possessions, residents are better able to discourage criminal activity and keep their neighborhoods safe.
There are thousands of neighborhood watch programs across the United States in which citizens work together to make their homes and communities less inviting targets for crime. The program is considered by many to be one of the most successful ways in which the members of various communities can help one another to reduce residential crime. Active participation among the public and local law enforcement is an essential element in a successful neighborhood watch program.
2. Getting Involved
Joining a neighborhood watch program is as simple as locating one in your neighborhood and attending a meeting to express your interest in becoming a member. If your community does not have a crime watch program in effect, starting one is a relatively simple process.
Form a small planning committee with your neighbors to determine how interested your community is in forming a crime watch program of its own. If it is determined that there is ample interest to continue, decide on a place and time for the first official neighborhood watch meeting. Inform your local police or sheriff's office of the meeting ten to fourteen days in advance. This will provide them with ample time to assign a crime prevention officer who will attend your meeting and help you inform the members of your community about the Neighborhood Watch Program and what is required to form their own groups. In addition, the officer will be able to discuss crime statistics in the area and bring a list of local and international contacts in order to help with the organizing and maintenance of your communities' program.
Hold your first neighborhood watch meeting in a place that is convenient for everyone, such as a neighborhood home, church, library or school. Design a flyer or letter of invitation and deliver one to every home in your area. Try to get each household to commit to one adult attendee in order to assess attendance. Prior to the meeting draw a large map of the streets and residences that will be covered by the watch to show the potential members of your group. As the meeting organizer, it is your responsibility to arrive early to introduce the officer attending and to help everyone become acquainted.
3. Key Positions
Within every neighborhood watch program there are positions of responsibility, which are elected by the members of the group. The first is the Neighborhood Watch Coordinator. This job is crucial for the success of the program and is best served by a retiree or a self-employed individual who spends more time at home and can keep a closer watch on the neighborhood.
The coordinator is responsible for expanding the program and handling new members. He or she is also in charge of maintaining a current list of participants and neighborhood residents, which includes names, addresses, phone numbers and vehicle descriptions. In addition, the coordinator acts as a liaison between watch members, civic groups, block captains and law enforcement officers. The coordinator is also responsible for arranging training programs that target crime prevention, obtaining and distributing materials such as neighborhood watch stickers, signs and decals and for encouraging participation in specific projects.
Another important position within any neighborhood watch program is the Block Captain. The group should designate one Block Captain for every ten to fifteen houses within the neighborhood. These individuals act as liaisons between block residents and the coordinator. They are also responsible for establishing a "telephone chain" or a current list of names, addresses and telephone numbers of block participants and distributing this list to the members of the neighborhood watch group.
The Block Captains visit and invite new residents to join the neighborhood watch program and notify them of meetings and training sessions. In addition, they are required to contact each member of the group as often as possible to discuss any problems, assistance requirements or suggestions for program improvement.
4. Required Materials
There are numerous materials that every Neighborhood Watch Program requires to be effective. The first of these is an organizational structure form. This provides the local Crime Prevention Unit with names, addresses and phone numbers of the liaison people in the program, namely the Block Captains and the Coordinator. The Activity/Correspondence Record Form is a record of the contact that has occurred between the neighborhood and their participating Crime Prevention Unit. The coordinator of the group is responsible for the maintenance and completion of the above forms as well as for the Participation Form, which is comprised of signatures of the members of the crime watch program. This form shows the percentage of the community members who are participating in the Neighborhood Watch Program. Each program requires 70% participation before it is allowed to post crime prevention signs and be considered an official Neighborhood Watch Program.
A map of the area is required to illustrate the areas for which the neighborhood watch program is responsible. The map should show each home and list the name, address and phone number of each resident. Program participants' homes should be clearly marked. The Block Captain is responsible for providing this form to the group coordinator and in turn, the coordinator provides a master copy to the Crime Prevention Unit.
In addition to the above, the National Sheriff's Association (in partnership with the Bureau of Justice Assistance, Office of Justice Programs and the U.S Department of Justice), has produced a new Neighborhood Watch toolkit. This kit provides formal training for law enforcement, Block Captains and community volunteers in the form of CD's offering self-paced Power Point training support. Training courses are also provided by the National Sheriff's Association for officers and leading community members.
5. Maintenance and Success
The success of any Neighborhood Watch Program depends on the participation and dedication of its members. Monthly meetings need to be held in order to develop awareness and keep members conscious of community happenings. Regular meetings are mandatory for the success of a crime watch group. Each meeting should have an interesting topic such as, "Recognizing Suspicious Activity" or "Home Security Measures" that will be helpful to the members as well as interesting.
Arrange home security inspections by crime prevention officers to teach the watch participants how to protect themselves and their homes and to identify vulnerabilities. In addition, asking trained crime prevention officers to attend meetings and discuss crime prevention strategies will help educate the community and illustrate how they are personally making a difference within the group.
A successful program being used by many neighborhood crime watch groups is Operation ID. This movement involves the marking of valuables with a specific identifying number owned and known by the owner of the property. This effort aids in the return of lost and stolen property and discourages theft.
Developing a neighborhood "fan" or telephone tree system will also help your program be successful. Each member of the group is responsible for alerting specific individuals in the neighborhood. This type of system allows the members of your group to alert one another quickly in the event of criminal activity in the area. In addition, teaching citizens how to use signals to alert adjacent residences when someone needs help will make the members of the neighborhood watch program feel confident and secure in their plan of action and illustrate that they are not helpless in the event of an emergency.
6. The Role of the Citizen
Unlike other law enforcement programs, the Neighborhood Watch Program is unique in that it provides the public with an opportunity to participate in the direct protection of their community. Working as a unit, neighbors assist the police by observing suspicious or unlawful activity and reporting it to the authorities as well as to one another.
The members of any neighborhood watch program need to be diligent in their efforts and commitment in providing protection to their community. Every participant has a responsibility to the others and dedication to the joint cause of eradicating residential crime is essential. Each person must take the safety of the community seriously and do whatever they can to ensure that not only their family and property is protected, but that the families and possessions of their neighbors are protected as well.
The key members of any Neighborhood Watch Program are responsible for providing informative materials from the National Sheriff's Association, the National Crime Prevention Council and local agencies to the members of the group. In addition, these members need to arrange for on going programs in which crime prevention experts can present neighborhood security tips. Knowledge and information is important to the success of any neighborhood watch program.
Citizens involved in a crime prevention group need to provide assistance within the community such as citizen patrols, providing support to crime victims, reporting crime and unusual events whenever they are observed and providing support and assistance to one another whenever it is required. The success of any neighborhood watch program is dependent upon the combined efforts of the local citizenry.
7. The Role of Law Enforcement
The role of law enforcement in any Neighborhood Watch Program is an important one. The Sheriff or Police Chief in the community commits equipment, training, operating space, speakers and liaison officers to the program. In addition, the police provide crime statistic information, encouragement and guidance as well as an active work force and logistical support to the efforts of the neighborhood watch program.
The Sheriff or Police Chief is also responsible for organizing the neighborhood into sections and assigning each area to specific officers. These officers will take responsibility for their own jurisdiction and for attending watch meetings, training members of the neighborhood watch program and identifying residents who can serve as organizers and coordinators in each area.
The police provide the community with burglary and vandalism reports that indicate whether a home inspection was completed at the victim's residence and what could have been done differently to provide better protection. In the case of a crime event, the local law enforcement is responsible for providing victim assistance and follow up.
The Sheriff or Chief of Police is responsible for contacting local community groups and inviting them to participate in the neighborhood crime watch efforts. These groups include the local U.S Chamber of Commerce, Kiwanis International, The American Farm Bureau Federation, P.T.A, YMCA or YWCA and The General Federation of Women's Clubs. In addition, Neighborhood Improvement Leagues, Optimist Clubs, Boy Scouts, Rotary International, RSVP, and other Senior Citizens Organizations are all examples of community groups that can be contacted by the local law enforcement to provide support and service to the local neighborhood watch program.
8. Projects and Programs
Many projects within a neighborhood watch program contribute to its success. Citizen patrols aid in the protection of the community as do security improvement projects. Additional lighting, the installation of locks, peepholes and alarm systems all help make the communities in crime watch neighborhoods safer. Electrical and security companies are providing material and service to many neighborhood watch programs at a group discount, which helps to ensure that homes and businesses are better protected.
Operation Identification is an important incentive being initiated by many neighborhood watch programs. It involves the marking of valuables with a specific number that identifies the owner. This makes for easier retrieval of personal property and discourages theft.
Triad programs where older residents and law enforcement develop strategies for reducing crime against the elderly are important elements of any neighborhood watch program.
In the event that a crime occurs, the Victim Assistance Program is responsible for helping victims cope by acting as a referral to professional agencies in the community and by providing support during the key stages of the criminal proceedings. In addition, the members of the neighborhood watch program will aid victims with shopping, transportation, babysitting, or any area in which assistance is required.
Neighborhood Watch Programs also come together to fundraise in the form of bake sales and community festivals. National Night Out is an important project for crime prevention groups. Traditionally held on the first Tuesday of each August, local neighborhood watch programs and other crime prevention organizations hold block parties, cookouts, parades and rallies to promote their crime and drug prevention activities, encourage the community to join them and raise funds for future projects.
9. Success and Statistics
Studies show that the Neighborhood Watch Program is one of the most effective and important anti-crime strategies in the country. For any community that is interested in providing its citizens a safe and pleasant environment, a crime watch program is one of the least expensive ways in which to do so.
Amid neighborhood watch programs across the country, statistics show that 80% of them participate in Operation Identification. Home security surveys are sponsored by 68%, and 38% of crime watch programs in the United States participate in environment beautification efforts. Block parent programs are coordinated by 27% and 19% of the neighborhood watch programs that are in effect participate in some form of victim assistance.
The biggest impact that the program has is on burglary. One of the most prevalent crimes in the country, it accounts for more than one third of the index crimes in the United States. It doesn't just threaten property; many people are injured and killed when they surprise or approach a burglary in process. Neighborhood watch programs are successful at deterring this kind of crime as neighbors are trained to notice suspicious activity and report it to law enforcement officials and one another. In addition, material provided by local law enforcement agencies, such as Neighborhood Watch signs and decals work to discourage would-be burglars and aid in the effort toward crime prevention. The idea of watch programs is not new. People regularly used to sit on their front porches watching the comings and goings within their neighborhoods, reporting any discrepancies to one another and to the police. The Neighborhood Watch Program re-instills this practice by encouraging people to take care of one another. The combined effort of the members of the crime watch, the community, and the local law enforcement agency, is essential for the success of any Neighborhood Watch Program.
