Neighborhood Watch

Neighborhood Watch Newsletters

Community Comments / Concerns

Home Vandalized -  2275 Alaska (10/2/08)

A home was severely vandalized at 1:30 a.m Thursday morning October 2nd.  The front window was broken and  front door and garage doors were spray painted.  If anyone saw anything or has any information that would be helpful please contact the Meridian Police Dept. 888-6678 , reference address & Bear Creek Neighborhood when calling. Your information can be reported anonymously.
Suspicious Activity (06/04/08)

On the evening of Wednesday June 4th 2008 at approximately 11PM I was outside my home located near Bear Claw and Denali, when I observed 5 individuals all dressed in dark clothing, running down the street and up to the fronts and sides of resident’s homes in the dark, clearly attempting to avoid detection. Upon noticing that they had been spotted they all ran down Denali. Upon walking down Denali and looking around I spotted 3 of them hiding in nearby bushes and got them to come out and surrender until police arrived…the other 2 individuals remain unlocated.

All 5 individuals appeared to be males ranging in age from 16-25.

Police response was to verbally question the 3 and then allow them to walk away. No citations or arrests were made, and no further searches were performed in an attempt to locate the other 2 individuals. It was determined that the 3 that were found were juvenile males under the age of 18 and that 2 of them do in fact live in the Bear Creek subdivision somewhere on the north side of Bear Creek. The 3rd juvenile does not live in Bear Creek.

What is it and why is this important to our Bear Creek Community?

What is Neighborhood Watch

In essence, Neighborhood Watch is a crime prevention program that stresses education and common sense (Stegenga 2000). It teaches citizens how to help themselves by identifying and reporting suspicious activity in their neighborhoods. In addition, it provides citizens with the opportunity to make their neighborhoods safer and improve the quality of life. Neighborhood Watch groups typically focus on observation and awareness as a means of preventing crime and employ strategies that range from simply promoting social interaction and “watching out for each other” to active patrols by groups of citizens (Yin, et al., 1976).

Most neighborhood crime prevention groups are organized around a block or a neighborhood and are started with assistance from a law enforcement agency. Volunteers who donate their time and resources are typically at the center of such programs, since many do not have a formal budget or source of funding. One study (Garofalo and McLeod, 1988) found that most Neighborhood Watches were located in areas that contained high percentages of single-family homes, little or no commercial establishments, and residents who had lived at their current address for more than five years. This study also found that most of the programs used street signs to show the presence of the program to potentially deter any would-be criminals.

All Neighborhood Watches share one foundational idea:

That bringing community members together to reestablish control of their neighborhoods promotes an increased quality of life and reduces the crime rate in that area. As Rosenbaum (1988) put it “. . . if social disorganization is the problem and if traditional agents of social control no longer are performing adequately, we need to find alternative ways to strengthen informal social control and to restore a ‘sense of neighborhood’”. That’s precisely what Neighborhood Watch strives to do. In fact, from the earliest attempts to deal with the neighborhood structure as it relates to crime (through the Chicago Area Project of the early 1900s), to modern attempts at neighborhood crime prevention, collective action by residents has proved one of the most effective strategies.

The reason for this effectiveness is rather simple:

Involving community members in watch programs decreases opportunities for criminals to commit crime rather than attempting to change their behavior or motivation.

Today’s Neighborhood Watch Program is an effective means of crime control and neighborhood cohesiveness. While not all of the programs in place today go by the same name, they all accomplish the same goal: to bring community members together to fight crime. As Minor aptly wrote, “Neighborhood is the key to maintaining successful relationships.”

Starting and Maintaining a Neighborhood Watch

As is often the case, communities that need Neighborhood Watch programs the most are the ones that find it the hardest to keep them. This is particularly the case with lower income neighborhoods. Typically, the adults in these neighborhoods work multiple jobs with odd hours, making it difficult to schedule meetings and organize events. This environment also makes it challenging for neighbors to get to know and care about one in a way that would encourage them to watch out for each another.

So what does it take to start and maintain an effective Neighborhood Watch Program? According to one researcher (Baker 1999), there are five fundamental steps that make this possible:

1. First, strategies that address the problems in a given area must be mapped out. From the beginning stages of a Neighborhood Watch effort, it is essential to incorporate neighborhood involvement and identify ways to deal with the crime patterns of that area.

2. The second step involves building a partnership between law enforcement officers and residents. This is not always an easy hurdle to overcome since citizens are often angry with law enforcement for not doing anything about the crime problem in their community. For a Neighborhood Watch program to be successful, it is essential that officers understand the needs of a neighborhood and work as role models for neighborhood crime prevention efforts.

3. The third step is to assess the needs of a given neighborhood. In many cases, law enforcement and community members do not have the same focus. For instance, law enforcement may be focusing their attention on a problem that the neighborhood is not concerned about, such as attempting to address major crimes throughout the city. On the other hand, community members may be more concerned about crimes such as bicycle thefts or graffiti, which are considered minor from a police standpoint. Effective Neighborhood Watch programs unite law enforcement and residents and encourage them to collectively determine what problems should be addressed and how.

4. Next, selecting and training an active body of volunteers that are led by organized and motivated leaders is critical. Without motivation and organization, volunteers may be uninspired to participate and quit out of frustration.

5. The fifth and final step is to develop meaningful projects. Often, after a Neighborhood Watch has addressed its original issue, members lose interest. It is important for leaders to remain enthusiastic. One way to accomplish this is to create and embark upon new projects so that there is always a goal towards which the team is aspiring. Projects may include building a neighborhood playground or painting over graffiti, for instance.

Even with all of these steps in place, success does not happen overnight. Creating truly effective Neighborhood Watch programs takes patience, planning, and enthusiasm. Since studies show that once a Neighborhood Watch program deteriorates, criminals notice and quickly resume illegal activities, there is certainly motivation to strive towards success. . .

One of the most important elements is ensuring that every person involved knows what to do when suspicious activity is noticed.

Knowing there was always someone watching out for them gave the employees a sense of security. That sentiment epitomizes the meaning of the Neighborhood Watch Program.

Neighborhood Watch is undoubtedly one of the oldest and most well-known crime prevention programs in history. While the modern day concept of program rose to prominence in the late 1960s in response to an increasing burglary rate, the roots of Neighborhood Watch can actually be traced all the way back to the days of Colonial settlements, when night watchmen patrolled the streets.

The modern version of the Neighborhood Watch Program was developed as a result of the multiple requests from sheriffs and police chiefs around the country who were looking for a crime prevention program that would incorporate citizen involvement and address the increasing number of burglaries taking place, especially in rural and suburban areas. In 1972, the National Sheriffs’ Association (NSA) took the concept a step further by seeking funding to make the program a national initiative. Thanks to a grant from the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, the National Neighborhood Watch Program was started.

For the first two years, the program was devoted primarily to disseminating information on the nature and volume of burglary and securing residential property and making it less vulnerable to break-ins. From there, it evolved into a program that promoted the establishment of ongoing local neighborhood watch groups that encouraged citizens to partner with their law enforcement agencies in an effort to reduce various types of “neighborhood crime.”

Since its beginnings, Neighborhood Watch has grown from an “extra eyes and ears” approach to crime prevention to a much more proactive, community-oriented endeavor providing a unique infrastructure that brings together local officials, law enforcement, and citizens for the protection of their communities. Today’s Neighborhood Watch programs incorporate activities that not only address crime prevention issues, but also restore pride and unity to a neighborhood. It is not uncommon to see members of Neighborhood Watch groups participating in community cleanups and other activities that strive to improve the quality of life for community residents.

In addition, the adoption of community policing by local law enforcement agencies has contributed to a resurgence in Watch groups over the years. Neighborhood Watch fits nicely into the framework of law enforcement/community partnerships, and Neighborhood Watch meetings provide a useful forum for airing neighborhood problems and practicing problem-solving techniques.

Furthermore, Neighborhood Watch has become especially practical in our current society, in which two-income families are the norm and many neighborhoods are deserted during the day. While criminals have attempted to use this statistic to their advantage, law enforcement has uncovered an important reality: the communities in which citizens have observed and reported suspicious activity have enjoyed lower crime rates.

As communities throughout the country have adopted the program and reported success, the popularity of the Neighborhood Watch Program has grown, and it continues to still.

You can read more about this program on-line at: www.usaonwatch.org or by visiting your local Meridian Police Department Crime Prevention Specialist –Melissa Delaney 846-7360.

Bear Creek’s Neighborhood Watch Coordinator for 2006 is Shana Silvestri. She can be contacted at 884-3390 or email shana@spro.net