Neighborhood Watch

Neighborhood Watch

The best crime prevention ever invented is a good neighbor. The security steps you and your neighbors take as a group are just as important as the things you do individually. This joint effort is called NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH.

Neighborhood watch should include an effort to inform everyone of good home security techniques, marking and listing your property, and neighborhood participation. In addition, it should include watching out for and reporting suspicious or unusual activities in your neighborhood

It is easy to organize a Neighborhood Watch in your area. Coordinate a date/time/location for your neighborhood’s initial meeting with the Community Services Deputy from the Putnam County Sheriff’s Department. During this initial meeting, the officer will offer tips on home security, crime awareness, operation identification, and how to report suspicious activities.

The coordinator is the liaison between the Community Services Deputy and the residents of the neighborhood. This person is responsible for organizing the various neighborhood meetings by coordinating times, dates, and locations with the Community Services Deputy and neighborhood participants. The coordinator is also expected to:

1. Maintain an up-to-date list of the block captains and participants in the neighborhood and see to it that this list is passed to the Community Services Deputy.
2. Keep in contact with the Community Services Deputy to both give and receive information on crime prevention techniques, neighborhood problems or crime trends.
3. Disseminate information from the Community Services Deputy to the citizens.
4. Relay information on the community problems/concerns to the Community Services Deputy.
5. Attend Neighborhood Watch training sessions
6. Recruit and assign block captains to the various blocks/areas of the neighborhood.

The block captains have one of the most important functions in the Neighborhood Watch program. They supervise the citizen participants who join Neighborhood Watch in the community. They are also the link between the neighborhood’s coordinator and the citizen participants. Any information that is sent to the coordinator from either citizen participant or the Community Services Deputy is then distributed to various block captains who are responsible for distribution. This can be done door to door, as with printed literature or by use of the telephone or email chain.

The duties are not too time consuming for the citizen participant who takes on this position rather the job will provide a means for meeting your neighbors, as well as allowing you the opportunity to help make your community a safe place in which to live. The block captain is responsible for approximately ten homes, and he or she is expected to:

1. Encourage neighborhood participation in the program
2. Compile a list of names of all households on the block who wish to participate in the Neighborhood Watch program. This list should include the household address, name and phone numbers, and email addresses
3. Assist their Neighborhood Watch coordinator with neighborhood meetings
4. Act as the liaison between the coordinator and the citizen participants. Relaying information and crime prevention literature to the residents on their block and in return providing information to the Sheriff’s Department though the coordinator.
5. Assist in the formulation and maintenance of the telephone and email chain
6. Welcome new neighbors to your neighborhood and encourage their joining of the Neighborhood Watch program
7. Assist the coordinator with the training of their neighbors in using good Neighborhood Watch techniques, such as: how to observe suspicious persons and activities, how to join Operation Identification, how to report a crime or an emergency.

The block captain must get the following information from all residents wishing to join Neighborhood Watch: Name / Address / Home & Work numbers / Email Addresses

The block captain should advise residents to:

1. Call the police first for any law enforcement problems
2. Call the block captain with any information – who/what/when/where/why/how
3. If the block captain is not home or available call the coordinator

1. The block captain is not the police of the neighborhood
2. The telephone chain is for normal hours, except emergencies
3. If the residents are not interested in the Neighborhood Watch program leave
4. The telephone chain is not for domestic problems
5. Try not to make third party calls. If possible have the residents call the police for themselves.

PRINTABLE DOCUMENTS YOU CAN DOWNLOAD
How to Describe Suspicious Behavior	Personal Property Identification	Holiday Home Security