Contact your local law enforcement agency about setting up a Neighborhood Watch. They should provide advice, materials and a speaker at your meeting.

WHERE can you hold your meeting at ?
You might conduct your community meeting in a :
Home

School

Church

Fire station

Community center

Neighborhood Park

City Hall or Town Hall

Any community building

Business office, after hours.

( 1. ) Schedule the first meeting, and then one week before the meeting :

( 1. a. ) Post flyers where they can EASILY be seen and read.

AFTER the meeting, promptly remove the flyers, tape, thumb tacks, etc.

( 1.b. ) Leave a flyer at every targeted home.

The flyer should announce :
WHO is holding the meeting ?
~ CONTACT ? : Phone number of someone
they can contact :

*-- Yours or someone from your group, or
*-- A Police representative, or
*-- Recorded message
WHAT is the meeting about ?
~ DESCRIBE briefly.
WHY is the meeting being held ?
~ DESCRIBE briefly.
WHEN is the meeting ?
~ DATE of the meeting
~ TIME of day the meeting will be held
WHERE is the meeting to be held at ?
~ MAP, but keep it very simple.
~ DIRECTIONS, and be sure to include the :
*-- Address of the meeting place.
*-- Where to park safely at.
-#- Will parking lot vehicles be guarded ?
*-- Preferred point of entry into the building ?
*-- Room number, where meeting will be held ?
*-- Do they follow 'arrows' to meeting room ?
REFRESHMENTS ? : Mention if they will be served,
and if the refreshments are FREE, which
usually helps attendance at meetings.

( 2. ) ATTENDANCE : To further improve attendance at your meetings

you might consider :

Provide a ‘Sign-in Sheet’ at the meeting so you can get a complete
list of names, address and phone numbers from everyone who
attends each meeting.
Then prepare a list from those names of individuals
to briefly call prior to EVERY future meeting.


* For better results also deliver another flyer the day prior
to each meeting.

** For best results, also call everyone the day of the meeting,
to remind them.

**** For ultimate results, provide transportation to and from
the meetings.

***** Provisions of FREE coffee, sodas, tea, cookies, donuts, etc.,
usually brings even more people, especially if the meetings
are held between 5:00 P.M. -to- 6:00 P.M. and limited to one hour.

( 3. ) AFTER the first meeting schedule future meetings :

This first meeting is urgent, as it will serve to indicate if a Neighborhood Crime Watch will even be supported, so don't get carried away making allot of future meeting plans untill this first meeting, where arrangements could be announced for one more meeting.

Announce the date and time at that next meeting.

You may wish to meet weekly to get started.

Later you may want to meet monthly or less often, depending on
how effective your group is established.

( 4. ) Bring or draw a map of your neighborhood, showing each block

and neighborhood streets on each block labeled

by name and block number, for easier recognition

of reference locations.

Hang your neighborhood map in the front of the
room, or drawn on a chalk board, or
shown on an overhead projector.

( 5. ) You might ask who is known to be trustworthy who lives on each block.

Make a list of those names.
Contact those people !
Invite them to each future meeting.
If they can't come, ask their input.
Keep in touch with them !

( 6. ) First seek volunteers, and then LATER select permanent representatives :

Eventually try to get a volunteer for each targeted block in
your neighborhood coverage area.

Recruit volunteers to serve as initial helpers.

Observe helper capabilities for future Block Captain selections.

Use any other desired persons from the same block as
"Block Helpers" , who help the Block Captain
on that particular block and who fills in as a
representative for that block at neighborhood
meetings when that Block Captain is unable to
perform his / her volunteer duty functions.

( 7. ) During the meeting, let people know if they have done a good job.

The meeting should result in a sense of accomplishment.

Limit your meetings to a specific length of time, then stick to it.

( 8. ) If you have confidential information to discuss you may want to

schedule a private meeting with Block Captains, or meet with them

individually at their homes, or call them individually so more confidential

discussions can be held.

* If many confidentially factors must be incorporated into your
group concerns, you may want to exercise great care that the
concerns of your Board Members does not become so focused
upon confidentiality that your group functions become jeopardized
from internal information flow disputes, selective 'special core clique'
fragmentation, 'loose cannons' making trouble in the name of the
group, or nibby persons more interested in obtaining information for
gossip than for crime prevention, liability issues, .........etc..
So, DO NOT EVER engage in any form of neighborhood
patrol expression without first consulting your attorney,
Prosecutor / District Attorney, and Chief of a local law
enforcement agency.
And if confidentiality is a matter of concern, be CERTAIN to include law enforcement, an attorney or some 'over-seer' to insure your people don't wander into any liability realm.

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Neighborhood Crime Watch
Membership

MEMBERSHIP : Membership in your Crime Watch should be open to all of your neighborhood residents (regardless of race or nationality).

ASSOCIATE MEMBERSHIP : Businesses in the area should be prompted to become active associate members and / or so supportive.

VOTING : Some Crime Watch groups limit membership or voting rights to paid-up members who are Property owners,..... but that could be detrimental in a high rental population district.

ANNUALDUES : Most Crime Watch groups charge an annual membership fee to help defray operational costs.

AWARENESS : Residents should become aware, and then be kept aware, of what crime related problems are happening inside their neighborhood and in the general vicinity of their neighborhood.

KEEPINGINFORMED : Then residents should be prompted to become aware of and stay aware of what is occurring on the block they live on.

COMMUNICATIONS : Communications via phone or flyers, etc., is an essential building block of any Neighborhood Crime Watch, because when supportive residents of a neighborhood are kept informed about the crime problems occurring in their neighborhood, then they become more aware of crime trends and the 'real threats' of crime occurrences around them.

People may depend upon inflated details of actual crime occurrences, or rumors about crime problems that never even occurred, or be living in unnecessary fear because of the threats of perceived crimes.

When residents have NO communications about crime awareness, the neighborhood could become complacent or apathetic , .......and that is what essentially destroys the active participation of people in any Neighborhood setting, especially where Gangs and Crime can then take over.

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Planning : Keep it Simple

Simplicity is often better than complex design.

So keep Crime Watch objectives and planning as simple as possible, (especially in the beginning), so slower paced people can catch up with the plan. So during your meetings, speak in a manner and with word selection that EVERYONE in the meeting room can understand what you are talking about.

Don't create 'weak links' in your chain by going too fast.

There is a similarity of effective crime prevention strategy elements that can duplicated for nearly every crime problem, and that eventual familiarization will help aid simplicity in future years when new strategy for your neighborhood's future crime problems is implemented.

So find what works best for your particular neighborhood, then when you address different crime problems, don't reinvent the wheel, just reapply applicable steps what worked best last time.

And remember the secret formula that is found
in the words of my own 'Morningside Crime Watch' motto :
"YOU only get out of something what YOU put into it !

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Double-click on arrow for more Crime Watch Manual pages

Crime Prevention Library	Laws of Indiana
Sex Offenders ~ Search	Criminal History Search
Muncie Information	Morningside CRIME WATCH
Indiana Law Enforcement Agencies	Police Magazine
KIDs DAY 1997	KIDs DAY 1998

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Technical Editor

Kimberly Davis

Author and Publisher

Ervin Davis
Crime Watch Coordinator
Morningside CRIME WATCH
Muncie, Indiana 47303-1364
E-Mail : morningsidecw@aol.com

Copyright 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006
©
All rights reserved

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This document Page began 6 June 1998, published 8 November 1998 and occationally up-dated.

WebMaster : Ervin Davis

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