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In an era where many people spend their waking hours working and commuting, it is increasingly difficult to get to know your neighbors. Building a sense of commumity however, is well worth the effort; crime is lower in areas where residents know each other as neighbors. Safe, healthy neighborhoods provide many settings and ways for people to interact in positive ways with one another. One of the easiest and most effective ways to do this is through a Neighborhood Watch group.
The Neighborhood Watch Program is organized to enable the police and the community to work together to make neighborhoods more crime resistant. It is primarily a community policing effort, designed to help prevent crime. Neighborhood Watch encourages strong working relationships between the citizens, their neighbors and police.
One of the most effective ways to promote citizen interaction with police is the sharing of information. Citizen groups determine specific needs or problems and
then share this information with local police. The police then act on this information and report back to the group on their progress. Police officers can also contact
public groups and organizations and make them aware of specific criminal activities or the needs of the police department.
Crime and fear of crime threaten a community's well-being. People become afraid to leave their homes, to use streets and parks, or to walk through their neighborhood.
Suspicion erupts between young and old, businesses gradually leave. Crime feeds on the social isolation it creates. Today's lifestyles, including both parents working,
more single parent families, and greater job mobility can contribute to this isolation and weaken communities.
Neighborhood Watch is a time-proven program that discourages crime in a community. Neighbors learn to watch out for each other and aggressively report suspicious
activity. In today’s environment of fewer officers and more crime, the only method left to combat crime is to get citizens more actively involved.
Contact the Crime Prevention Officer
Contact a Council member?
Quarterly Newsletters
How to Lock Out Crime
Block Captain Materials
To block off a street for a block party
Create your own Neighborhood Website for free!
District/Ward map
USAonWatch
National Neighborhood Watch Institute
List of online crime prevention resources
National Association of Town Watch
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