Benefits Of Neighborhood Watch

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

watch simply involves neighbors paying attention to their environments, including their own home as well as others in the community.
A neighborhood watch is a great way to make a community feel safe. However, it is not necessary for all neighborhoods. The information enclosed should help be a deciding factor as to whether it would be something good for your community or not.

Neighborhood Watch Program, Is it Necessary?

Introduction
Neighborhood watch is a group of people living together in a community who want to make their neighborhood safer by coming together and working with local law enforcement to improve their overall safety and quality of life in their home.

“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

to work hand in hand with the community watch people.
Benefits of Neighborhood Watch
• Deterrence or reduction in crime of the community
• Quality of life in the community will rise
• People will feel safe, secure, and empowered
• Building a cohesive community that takes care of each other
• Becoming an informant to law enforcement about things they observe or hear
• Addresses community issues, not just criminal activity
• Neighborhoods with community watch are less likely to be a target for criminal acts, as the neighborhood watch sign deters criminals from entering.

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

area.
When the group is ready to have their first meeting the topics of discussion need to be concerns or problems that are known to be in the community. This can also be a good time to have a local law enforcement member to help address different concerns and strategies on how to deter crime and assist law enforcement with apprehending criminals in the community. By developing a mission or goals can help show the community the purpose of the watch as well as empower the members to be vigilante.
After the group has been formed and a mission has been developed the group should begin training or developing the proper steps to reporting or stopping crime. This can be done with many different local agencies but the best is to start with local police. They can offer the proper training on what to do in certain situations and will usually be at no cost to group. Training is one of the most important things a group can do, because it ensures everyone is on the same page as to what they need to do in the presence of crime.
The final step is making sure your community is aware of the program and what they can do to help out if they see something going on. A good way to keep the community aware is by sending out monthly newsletters with local information and tips on what to do in different situations. Having everyone in the community aware and on board with what is going on is important to the success of the neighborhood watch.
Phone Trees
This is a great way to share information and build a stronger sense of community in the neighborhood. After a crime is reported to the police a phone tree can help expedite information throughout the community and develop a chain of command between neighbors. Each person has a specific person and everyone else follows suit until the block captain is called and he or she is typically the liaison for law enforcement in the area. The tree is a great way to pass information between neighbors when there is urgent information to share, it could save someone’s life. Some houses may not want to participate in the program so it is important to leave their number off the tree but leave their address as it could be used when reporting information to the police.

Figure 1.1

Map of Neighborhood
Along with the phone tree, a map of the neighborhood can prove to be a very helpful tool. The map gives residents information on everyone that lives in their community and how far their neighbor’s houses are from their own. This can be helpful when trying to explain to law enforcement exactly what and where they saw the crime being committed. These can also be helpful if there were to be a natural disaster or type of emergency.

Figure 1.2

Funding
Depending on the type of neighborhood watch group necessary this can be a rather cheap program to create. However, with advances in modern technology this can be something expensive which would require funding from the neighborhood. Most neighborhoods will vote to stay on the cheap side unless you live in a well-developed wealthy area. If you find yourself running a basic program some of the things that you will need are paper, pens, handouts, whiteboard, and computer. These will most likely be used during the meetings and for training purposes. If a patrol is designated for your neighborhood watch, some additional funding such as whistles, mace, cellphones, and water bottles will need to be supplied. This type of program can cost upwards of a $1,000 per year. However, if people in the neighborhood do not want to donate out of their own pocket, fund raising could be utilized through garage sales, bake sales, and bottle drives. Typically, the wealthier areas will have surveillance systems installed which can cost in the thousands. Most groups will chose to do the lesser end of the program as people watching people is a proven tactic to deter crime.
Concerns
Some people are happy with where they live and do not feel threatened by the crime around them and may feel that the Neighborhood Watch could be a nuisance and unnecessary program for the neighborhood. This can be a problem for the cohesiveness of a neighborhood as the program works best if everyone takes part in it. This can weaken the link in the neighborhood and cause issues down the road especially if the house not wanting to take part is annoyed with the face that there is a program in their neighborhood.
A major concern for any group is that it is very easy to say that a person will report a crime or step up and intervene if they see something wrong, but when it comes time to do it they are nowhere to be found. One way to alleviate this issue is to train for real life scenarios. The more training, the better off the group is at providing the proper security for their neighborhood. Not everyon is going to be able to attend training when it is provided so it is important that that captains and co-captains get with their designated blocks to make sure that everyone in the neighborhood receives the proper training and a summary of what was discussed at the meeting.
Conclusion
“Our nation is built on the strength of our citizens. Every day, we encounter situations calling upon us to be the eyes and ears of law enforcement. Not only does neighborhood watch allow citizens to help in the fight against crime, it is also an opportunity for communities to bond through service” (Welcome to National Neighborhood Watch, 2015). Safety and security are two words that should go hand in hand. A neighborhood watch program is an assurance to any neighborhood that its members can feel safe in their own homes. Everyone in a community can benefit from some type of program that provides security to its members.