Here in Miami, Florida where I live, you don’t have to travel very far before you find a yellow sign with the image of a man looking through binoculars indicating that you have entered into a crime watch community. I have always wondered whether these signs actually work to deter criminals from entering your neighborhood or do they only give the homeowners a false sense of added security. So rather than assume that it does or doesn’t have any positive effect in deterring crime, we will take a close look at what it takes to make your neighborhood a crime watch community, and what the experts have to say about the matter.
According to most jurisdictions which support the establishing of crime watch communities, the use of your ADT monitored security system should not be replaced by the implementation of a crime watch program. However, having a monitored alarm system is greatly enhanced when used in conjunction with an established crime watch community. According to experts, by having a crime watch community you can expect to receive the following benefits. Crime awareness in the neighborhood will be available to all residents and information on how to prevent them from happening to you. Different crime prevention techniques are made available to the residents to make your family, property and neighborhood safer. The residents of the community crime watch will feel safer, which may be almost as important as actually being safer. Residents will have the opportunity to meet other neighbors and develop new relationships and friendships. Neighbors will be looking out for your property when you are away and vice versa. Your close neighbors can serve as a first contact in the case of an actual alarm activation during a break in. The residents involved in the crime watch community will feel a sense of accomplishment from doing something about crime in their own neighborhood.
After evaluating all of the benefits of creating a crime watch community in your neighborhood, it is easy to say that those crime watch signs at the entrances of these neighborhoods offer more than a false sense of added security. So we conclude that creating a crime watch community is a worthwhile venture, however that raises the next question, which is how you go about setting up your neighborhood and what are the requirements if any?
Although requirements to obtain permission to create a crime watch community in your particular neighborhood may vary from other neighborhoods, for the most part all jurisdictions follow a similar approach to allowing neighborhoods to participate as crime watch communities. Because I am in Miami, Florida, I will use the mandates set forth by Miami Dade County Police Department as an example of the requirements that must be met.
The first step in creating the crime watch community is getting the approval of the residents within the neighborhood. A minimum of 80 percent of the residents have to be willing to participate in the program or else it will not become a legitimate crime watch community. Once the residents agree on becoming participants of the program, a resident roster is created which includes the names, addresses, contact numbers and email addresses of every resident on the roster. The roster is then sent to the Miami Dade Police Department for approval, and once approved the officer in charge of creating new crime watch communities contacts the person who submitted the roster on behalf of the residents to plan an initial meeting. At this meeting is where the initial phase takes place as to who will be named chairperson of the crime watch committee. It is then the chairpersons responsibility to elect block captains who will be the liaison between the chairperson and the residents. The chairperson oversees and receives information from the block captains and then in turn reports all criminal activity to the officer in charge of their area. The block captains main duty is to report all criminal activity not only to the chairperson but also to email everyone in the community of the events reported so that everyone in the community is made aware of what is going on. Quarterly meeting are hosted by the police officer assigned to the area and usually a guest speaker is present to share information about what is going on in the community as well as information on how to prevent residents from becoming crime targets.
I will conclude this article by one again mentioning that nothing replaces the effectiveness of having your very own ADT monitored security system, however I think the point is clearly made that a crime watch community in your neighborhood most definitely enhances not only your security system but also your own awareness of what is going on around your neighbor hood.
