Membership in your Crime Watch should be open to all of your neighborhood residents. And all businesses in the area should be prompted to become active members and / or supporters.
Although separate membership status could be considered for certain resident categories :
Property owner who is also a resident.
Property owner but non-resident of the neighborhood.
Business owner, inside your neighborhood boundary.
Business owner, of a business supportive to your cause but NOT located inside your area.
NOTE :
While everyone in the neighborhood should be allowed an opportunity to support any crime prevention efforts, some
neighborhood groups limit member 'voting rights' to actual Property Owners. Then NON-Voter "Associate Membership"
status is applied to Renters and contributing business Manager / Owners located outside the respective
Neighborhood Crime Watch boundary area. This arrangement protects property tax payers who otherwise could be burdened with
paying years of increased taxes for something voted on by Renters, who no longer reside there, who do NOT pay property taxes or who never paid into any increased
Property Tax.
RESTRICTIVE MEMBERSHIP
BAD Idea :
Restrictive membership could become detrimental to assembling larger numbers of members in your organization IF the Property Owners / Tax Payers are living in a high rental population district, where property owners are out numbered by temporary Renter residents .
GOOD Idea :
One example of a problem could arise if the Renters were to be persuaded to vote for something that property owners would be stuck with to maintain or to pay for long after the Renters moved away.
By-Law Changes :
So decisions such as By-Law restrictions or other organizational changes (which could become detrimental to property owners) could be employed as safeguards in such restricted membership organizations.
Restricted Membership groups might then allow everyone to participate in meetings and discussions, but only restrict actual vote power to 'property owner members'.
While another organization might allow paid annual membership to everyone in their neighborhood,
and anyone who is a 'paid-up' member could then have complete voting rights in the organization.
These are just a couple of important items to consider when assembling your By-Laws.
MEMBERSHIP FEES
Most Crime Watch groups charge an annual membership fee to help defray operational costs.
Operational costs can cripple your organization !
So take great care to avoiding many expenses by asking for 'materials and services' to be donated, that otherwise would cost money, which could drain your budget.
There are several reasons for having at least 'some' cash available to the group, one of which is your capability to rapidly function (print flyers etc) during an emergency situation when project funds could be urgently needed.
Operational costs can be met in any number of methods, such as ;
Pay expenses yourself
Conducting fund raisers
Door-to-door donation drive
Contributions from local business
Become Incorporated and seek Grants
Become a 501-C-3 Not-For-Profit and seek Grants
Crime Prevention funds from your Police Department
Seek financial assistance from local government agencies
CRIME AWARENESS
If the city newspaper fails to include news about neighborhood crime problems, then your group may want to try to fill that void, with your own monthly Newsletter or Flyers.
Crime awareness is essential to alert residents to the degree of crime occurrences and threats of crime in their vicinity.
I have found, from my personal experience, that residential awareness is one of the essential tools that has provenly helped lower specific types of crime occurrence rates ;
Rape
Burglary
Car thefts
Vandalism
Youth Gang related problems
Intimidation of and assault upon the elderly for cash / valuables
RESIDENTS
Residents, , should be provided an occasional opportunity to become aware of crime situations pertaining to their neighborhood, ...especially the crime situations occurring on and near to their block, and several options are available ;
Flyer
Phone
Meeting
Newsletter
Bulletin Board
Town Newspaper
Organize a Crime Watch
Door-to-door / Face-to-face visits
They can contact their Block Captain
COMMUNICATIONS
Communications is an essential building block of any Neighborhood Crime Watch.
When residents of a neighborhood are kept informed about crime problems occurring in their neighborhood, then they become more aware of crime trends, real threats of crime occurrences around them, and can take appropriate crime preventative measures.
With NO communications about crime awareness, then the neighborhood could become complacent or apathetic , and that is what destroys the active participation of people in any Neighborhood where Gangs and Crime takes over.
Residents who have demonstrated support, concern, assistance roles and are members, could be provided additional access to more detailed information, and that can be accomplished in a number of methods ;
Flyer
Phone
Meeting
Newsletter
Bulletin Board
Door-to-door / Face-to-face visits
They can contact their Block Captain
Read their Newspaper's Crime Section
CRIME INFORMATION SHARED AT MEETINGS
Keep in mind that Burglars, Drug Dealers, Gang members, other Low Life’s, their relatives and friends may also seek to infiltrate your group, or at least attend meetings.
So your group may desire to avoid mentioning specific information details at PUBLIC meetings, (such as persons by name who are suspected of criminal activity),.........unless your group is strong and dependably supported by Police.
Some crime information should simply NOT be discussed at your PUBLIC meeting, .... and excluded if it relates to any Police investigation.
Due to the nature of some crime situation details, such more-privileged information about specific crimes may be desirable to restrict to certain categories of persons, on a need-to-know basis shared with certain trust-confirmed membership position individuals, or confidentially restricted to one or more of the following :
Block Captain(s)
Board Members
Property Owner Members
General Membership individuals
Crime Watch Coordinator and Police liaison Officer
INCORPORATING : By-Laws
Once you have established yourself as a group, with elected Officers, you may want to establish By-Laws and even consider Incorporating so your Crime Watch organization so it can apply for Grants and such inter-organizational support.
If you are not familiar with what By-Laws are, or what they consist of,
you may want to check the following By-Law samples :
Do NOT duplicate any portion of any of the above linked sample By-laws unless first obtaining written permission from the organizational owners, who can be reached at the address affixed to each site page.
Simplicity is better than complex design. So keep Crime Watch objectives and planning should as simple as possible, (especially in the beginning). This will also make it easier, so slower / newer people can catch up with the plan(s).
There is a similarity of effective strategy elements that can be duplicated for nearly every crime problem, so what works on one problem can often be reapplied to another problem. So don't make things harder than they really are. Don't reinvent the wheel, just reapply applicable steps that worked last time, when you address other problems.
NOTE : After your organization has held a few meetings you may attracted some individual(s) who disrupt meetings, or asking the same questions asked at previous meetings where they were not in attendance. It may then be necessary for the growth of the organization to sub-divide into two or more groups. Then you can hold the PUBLIC meeting, as well as a separate 'private' meeting :
General Public meeting : Generalized crime prevention content
Block Captain contacts : Discuss problems within their individual vicinity
Board of Directors meeting : Discuss specific crime problems and any applicable confidential details. Police investigator etc. may be desired included.
Crime Watch Coordinator contact with applicable law enforcement agency.
PROBLEMS
Anytime people come together there is the likelihood of problems, but when people have crime problems and concerns to deal with, you can assume allot of problem issues and temperamental people to contend with, so be patient with them.
NOTE : REMEMBER the old saying "Don't Rock The Boat" ? Well that applies to alot of things, such as when trying to get things done. So you need to realize that you may need future situations to also get resolved, so "Don't Burn Your Bridges Behind You" by making people so angry solving todays problem that they will NOT be willing to work together on future problems. So don't let your ego, macho, personal pride, or any demands for your personal vindictiveness make you get 'stupid' !
NOTE :
BE PATIENT WITH LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIALS, they have allot MORE to do than spend their entire duty time only taking care of your ONE neighborhood problems. There is an old saying about Beat Cops, "Take care of your Cop and your Cop will take care of you !" So don't make unworthy demands. Have patience.
BUT after a reasonable amount of time you may want to REMIND the Policeman if the problem still exists and is not being addressed yet. Although should you decide that your group has reoccurring regular difficulty with ANY individual law enforcement official and find NO desired assistance curbing crime problems being provided, THEN you may want to contact a Supervisor, ....... or even start going up the Chain of Command.
After contacting a Supervisor, if you continue to feel nothing is being done, REMIND the Supervisor. BUT if you still feel your crime situation is NOT being addressed, THEN you may want to or need to eventually climb the Chain of Command to contact the next position of authority about the Supervisor. You may even find that sometimes contacting another law enforcement agency about certain types of problems may get assistance or intervention allot faster.
Please also realize that such persistence (especially when jumping over his head "climbing the Chain of Command" to his supervisor) may NOT be appreciated by the law enforcement official, who took your initial crime report, who you complain about ..... which could create lasting future problems, especially for the person(s) or organization(s) who did the complaining !!!
So if you have read the above and are still determined to pursue your complaint to a higher level of authority, then you may want to start climbing the steps of the Chain of Command ladder (one by one) untill you reach a point of satisfactory assistance.
Civilians who have never been in the military sometimes feel their personal importance is far higher than other more worthy community priority, so don't let yourself get caught up in any Power Broker Contest with someone from the 'inside' or you and your organization will loose !
And what ever you do, DO NOT make yourself forever look inconsideratly stupid because you abused your trusted position by being so self-centered and power hungry that you trash any good relations potential by going jumping a few positions higher and higher on the Chain of Command when lower positions are available to you, ...as you need to go one step at a time......, unless the situation is very life threatening urgent. Any abuse of the Chain of Command will likely result in your name considered a whacko person or trouble maker or political loose cannon, an 'enemy', who's effectiveness could then become totally diminished once such identity is applied, and then possibly result in damaging forever the crime prevention organization itself that your name and function is attached to,...and it could even stimulate a mood of possable future ill will. So don't go there !
LEARN the Chain of Command, and follow it, seeking answers at each level, and waiting for THAT level to respond.
Generally the 'Chain of Command' (or steps of higher authority contacts) should include the following strict considerations :
START HERE : The Police Officer
THEN NEXT : District Police Supervisor
THEN NEXT : Shift Supervisor
THEN NEXT : Deputy Chief of Police
THEN NEXT : Chief of Police
THEN NEXT : Police Commissioner
THEN NEXT : Merit Commission
THEN NEXT : Mayor
THEN NEXT : County Sheriff
THEN NEXT : County Prosecutor
THEN NEXT : State Police Post Commander
THEN NEXT : State Attorney General
THEN NEXT : Federal Law Enforcement Agency, (as applicable)
...............................(NOTE : Regional Office at your County Seat or State Capital)
THEN NEXT : Federal Law Enforcement Agency, (as applicable) National Headquarters
THEN NEXT : PRAY !!!!!
And now it's up to you !
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is
for good men to do nothing." Edmund Burke (1729-1797)
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