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Benefits of Neighbourhood Watch
Community prevention crime prevention
The effect of neighborhood watch
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Executive Summary
When people no longer feel safe in their neighborhood and want to make a difference developing a neighborhood watch is a good way to make people feel safe again. Neighborhood Watch is one of the most popular community crime prevention programs in the United States. When a person thinks of the word home, safety and security should be the first things that come to mind. A neighborhood watch can create that piece of mind for everybody in the community. However, if the crime rate is low the urgency for an active watch might be unnecessary.
There is an abundant amount of information in this proposal about how having a neighborhood watch can be effective in any type of neighborhood and what type is good for your community. Neighborhood
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“Neighborhood Watch programs became popular in the 1970s and 1980s; by 2000, roughly 40% of the U.S. residential population was covered by such citizen crime-watching programs. These neighborhood associations typically involve recruiting residents to participate in community meetings and various surveillance tasks around properties and common areas; a block captain and coordinator may take leadership roles and serve as liaisons to the local police” (Whibey, 2012). Neighborhood watch empowers everyday citizens to take charge of their life and the safety of their community to become active by fighting against crime and community issues. Neighborhood watches are not only responsible for the safety of their community but cleaning up the disorder as well, so when there is an issue of needing to clean up the neighborhood of trash or graffiti, this is the group that can take charge of getting that fixed or deterring it from happening.
There can many different types of neighborhood watch programs, it all depends on the community in which it is needed. Some may require a very strong structure, where other groups do not require as much attention. Getting local law enforcement involved is very important piece to the neighborhood watch as they are supposed
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Steps to Building a Successful Neighborhood Watch Program
Talk with neighbors in the community and discuss the issues and concerns regarding crime in the area. By creating awareness with neighbors or potential volunteers for the watch it can begin a basis from where the watch needs to start. Depending on how strong of a watch program is needed the members of the watch may want to start collecting data, police reports, and media reports for crime in their town. For example, if there is a group of younger people meeting up in the neighborhood and creating disturbances on a regular basis there could be some use for a neighborhood watch.
Once the community issues have been identified and volunteers have come forward to start the watch, the group should begin to meet with local law enforcement agents (typically police) and figure out how they can work together to resolve their community problems. Law enforcement officials can offer a lot of help when it comes to neighborhood watch. They can provide training, hand-outs, and up to date information on crime in the
In order for the police to successfully prevent crimes, public cooperation is needed. Various community policing programs have been implemented and it is important to discuss the benefits and limitations of these programs. Community policing allows the community to be actively involved and become a partner in promoting safety. This partnership increases trust of police officers and helps citizens understand that the police are on their side and want to improve their quality of life (Ferreira, 1996). The role of the police officers goes beyond that of a “crime fighter” and expands to multiple roles including that of a victim-centered
...area. Researchers have realized that even though foot patrol did not exactly lower the rate of the crimes as they have hoped for, but they did realize that maybe people would not commit crimes in those areas if they knew that officers are around almost at every other corner and they would be easily caught right away. Also, in this article, it has been noted that close contact between police and the people helps the former develop first-hand information about crime and possible criminal behavior. Information system such as this is more likely to have a positive long-term impact.
The role of civic engagement in neighborhood revitalization, particularly in low income African American communities, has gained increased awareness and in recent years. Community, nonprofit, and government leaders now view civic engagement as a critical component of effective solutions as they seek to address crime, unemployment, low graduation rates and numerous other neighborhood challenges. Several successful initiatives have come to fruition and provide strong evidence of the benefits that increased civic engagement provides.
1. National Crime Prevention Council. (2014). Neighborhood Watch. Retrieved from National Crime Prevention Council: http://www.ncpc.org/topics/home-and-neighborhood-safety/neighborhood-watch
Unfocused and indiscriminate enforcement actions will produce poor relationships between the police and community members residing in areas. Law enforcement should adopt alternative approaches to controlling problem areas, tracking hot persons, and preventing crime in problem regions. Arresting criminal offenders is the main police function and one of the most valuable tools in an array of responses to crime plagued areas, however hot spots policing programs infused with community and problem oriented policing procedures hold great promise in improving police and community relations in areas suffering from crime and disorder problems and developing a law enforcement service prepared to protect its nation from an act of
Community policing is a strategy used by various departments in order to create and maintain a relationship between the law enforcement agency and the community being patrolled. Community policing is composed of three critical components, community partnerships, organizational transformation, and problem solving (Gardiner, 154, 2016). Community partnerships are pivotal in community policing since they increase public trust and create am improved relationship in law enforcement agencies better serving the community (Gardiner, 87, 2016). These partnerships not only offer public input but also encourage the public to cooperate with law enforcement agencies in order to minimize crime within the community (Gardiner, 88, 2016). Unlike, the traditional strategies of policing, community orientated policing has been adopted by two-thirds of agencies in order to improve public safety and control crime. (Gardiner, 148, 2016).
Community oriented policing has been around for over 30 years, and promotes and supports organizational strategies to address the causes, and reduce the fear of crime and social disorder through problem solving tactics. The way community policing works is it requires the police and citizens to work together to increase safety for the public. Each community policing program is different depending on the needs of the community. There have been five consistent key elements of an effective community oriented policing program: Adopting community service as the overarching philosophy of the organization, making an institutional commitment to community policing that is internalized throughout the command structure, emphasizing geographically decentralized models of policing that stress services tailored to the needs of individual communities rather than a one-size-fits-all approach for the entire jurisdiction, empowering citizens to act in partnership with the police on issues of crime and more broadly defined social problems, for example, quality-of-life issues, and using problem-oriented or problem-solving approaches involving police personnel working with community members. Community oriented policing has improved the public’s perception of the police in a huge way. Community policing builds more relationships with the
Many departments now meet regularly with neighborhood groups, allow citizens to participate in citizen police academies, and conduct forums to give citizens a better understanding of the duties of police officers and their actions. Some police departments require and encourage officers to get out of their patrol vehicle and initiate positive contact with the people on their beats (Shusta, Levine, Wong, Olson, & Harris, 2011). All of these efforts are important and relevant to community policing, which helps to remove and diminish negative images of police officers. Citizens are more willing to work hand in hand with police officers who are approachable, engaged, and take ownership of the neighborhoods they serve, which is what community policing is all about.
Community policing allows officers to be actively involved on the streets alongside the community. Their focus is not only to solve crimes but to interact with the people in their neighborhood, establish a rapport with them. This initiative has gained popularity within recent years as the police and leaders of the community pursue more significant ways to promote public safety and to enrich the quality of life of their community members. The police and the citizens often come in contact with each other for a multitude of reasons other than criminal purposes. Police officers often engage in community service by providing an abundance of information for those in need, and they offer educational services at schools and outreach
To conclude, Community policing represents a major development in the history of American law enforcement, but the extent to which this approach is a success and dominates contemporary policing remains a source of debate. In my point of view, community policing is good for communities. It has challenged the traditional concept of the police as crime-fighters by drawing attention to the complexities of the police role and function. In addition to the police officer hard work; citizens can also make a difference and contribute to make neighborhoods a better place to live. For instance, citizens can hold community meetings to talk about concerns and agree on solutions help organize healthy activities for children in your neighborhood, join or starting a neighborhood crime watch program, and talk to your community police officers and share information and concerns.
There are many different ways of policing in the 21st century and all address and apply different theories and ideas to try and control the crime this day in age. One of these methods is called community policing and many law enforcement agencies around our country and the world use it as a model for policing and interacting with communities. Community policing is based on the belief that policing agencies should partner with communities with the goals to prevent or reduce the amount of crime in those areas (Pollock, 2012 p. 99). There are 3 main aspects of community policing that I will talk about in this paper and they are community partnerships, organizational transformation, and problem solving. After hearing about the
♦ Hold regular local meetings with police to raise concerns and talk about what to do to make things better.
Put the neighbor back into neighborhood by creating a sense of cooperation. Neighborhood Watch can play an important role in deterring future crimes such as arson or burglary. Building a strong and good relationship among government agencies like local fire department, emergency personnel, and law enforcement could be beneficial for the community in reducing arson.
The key aspects to community policing involve having officers working in permanent neighborhoods, the involvement of citizens to identify problems and have potential solutions, and the reliance on agencies to help locate issues. The cornerstone of the program is the citizen interaction with the police. It is reported that communities that receive community policing funds have reduced levels of violent and property crimes, also has a greater number of arrests. Successful partnership helps with the reduction of gang and drug activities, area crime rate, and the improvement of the relationship between law enforcement and
Community policing is a law enforcement strategy that encourages interactive partnerships between law enforcement agencies and the people they serve (Berlin, Michael M. "Encyclopedia of Community Policing and Problem Solving.") These partnerships help communities find solutions to problems with collaborative problem solving and improved public trust. Through this model, the public plays a role in prioritizing public safety problems (Berlin, Michael M. "Encyclopedia of Community Policing and Problem Solving.")