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The Neighborhood Watch program is a crime prevention effort that has been in existence across the United States for more than 30 years. Founded in 1972 by the National Sheriffs Association, it originally aimed to deter an increasing residential burglary problem that was affecting many towns and cities throughout the United States. The program provides a means for local officials, law enforcement, and citizens to work together, forming community-based partnerships to enhance safety within their community by improving the reporting of suspicious activity in a neighborhood to the proper law enforcement authorities. While citizens are discouraged from actively getting involved in crime fighting activities, they are strongly encouraged to become the eyes and ears of local law enforcement, providing heightened community awareness.

Through the 1960s, U.S. society became more mobile and faster paced, and more and more households had two-income families. This left vast numbers of homes empty during a typical weekday. Further, some suburban neighborhoods of the 1950s began to deteriorate and families began to keep more to themselves, losing some of the familiarity that once existed in neighborhoods. As the suburbs expanded, suburban sprawl forced law enforcement to attempt to cover larger and more developed geographic areas. Law enforcement agencies sought ways to deter burglaries, instituting Neighborhood Watch as a way to train people to be more observant and attentive to the surroundings within which they lived.

In the typical Neighborhood Watch program, the local police department identifies a neighborhood as a geographic area comprised of residents who have something in common, such as the physical location of their homes. Representatives of the police department then reach out to the residents of the identified neighborhood and solicit volunteerism for the purpose of heightening awareness and looking out for each other. As a crime prevention effort, the police train neighborhood residents how to be more aware and observant of their surroundings so as to readily spot suspicious activity and report it to the police. The police department assists the watch group by providing accurate and current data on the criminal activity in and around the neighborhood, distributing anti-crime information to the citizens, and providing training on how to detect and deter crime in a neighborhood.

When initiating a Neighborhood Watch Group, police will typically make contact with a resident and ask that he or she host an informational meeting, inviting surrounding neighbors to listen to a police presentation on the Neighborhood Watch program. Interested residents will then be asked to join in the effort. A block captain is usually chosen from among the volunteers, and a phone or computer chain is set up to help coordinate the movement of information. Through periodic meetings, neighbors get to know each other and what is normal activity in their neighborhood. The neighbors also become more familiar with the police officers who service their neighborhood, greatly enhancing overall communications and providing a means for efficient and effective communication when an increase in crime is detected and/or in times of emergency. As an added deterrent, when a Neighborhood Watch forms, it posts signs advising of the watch throughout the neighborhood, warning potential criminals that the neighborhood is protected by an organized group of citizens who watch out for each other and their property.

As part of the Neighborhood Watch program, residents are asked to participate in Operation Identification. This is another crime prevention effort in which citizens engrave personal identification numbers onto their valuable property to aid in identification and recovery should it be stolen. Other activities that Neighborhood Watch Groups often get involved in include home security surveys, street lighting improvements, safe houses (for children), and hosting of community safety lectures and demonstrations.

The Neighborhood Watch program is effective because the residents of a neighborhood are better equipped than most police officers to notice things that are out of the norm in their neighborhood. The most diligent and dedicated police patrol officer can still spend only a limited amount of time in a particular neighborhood, restricting his or her opportunity to become totally familiar with the comings and goings of the people who inhabit the area. A resident of a street inevitably spends more time on and around that street of residence. Simply by spending that much time in the street's environment, a resident will be more aware of what belongs and what seems to be out of the ordinary. Even in the busy society within which we presently exist, we still know what our neighbors look like, what type of vehicles they drive, and what type of vehicles their common visitors drive. A car parked legally in front of a neighbor's house might not arouse the suspicion of a passing police car; however, a resident might recognize it as being unfamiliar to that neighbor's house. Passing such information on to the local police ensures that all is safe and secure or perhaps deters the committing of a crime.

Neighborhood Watch programs have proven to instill a greater sense of security in neighborhoods, reduce the fear of crime, and enhance a sense of community in areas where they are used. An effective Neighborhood Watch program can be set up in any neighborhood, regardless of the socioeconomic level of the area, as there is little cost involved to operate a basic program. The biggest resource needed is a number of caring and dedicated citizens willing to get involved in an effort to improve the quality of life within their own neighborhood.

References:

1) Bursik, Robert J. and Harold G. Grasmick. 2001.

2) Neighborhoods and Crime: The Dimensions of Effective Community Control. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.

3) National Neighborhood Watch Institute. (http://www. nnwi.org). Neiderman, Andrew. 2000. Neighborhood Watch. New York: Pocket Books.

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