About Lower Nazareth Township Crime Watch

About Neighborhood Crime Watch

Background:

The Lower Nazareth Township (LNT) Neighborhood Crime Watch Program is a community-based partnership with the Colonial Regional Police Department (CRPD).

The LNT Neighborhood Crime Watch Program was approved unanimously by the Lower Nazareth Board of Supervisors on August 22, 2007.

The Neighborhood Crime Watch program has been around for many years in various communities across the country. The program has gone by many names such as Community Watch, Crime Watch, and Neighborhood Watch. Whatever the name, the primary purpose is the same, crime prevention.

This plan seeks to describe the strategic aspirations of the Lower Nazareth Township Neighborhood Crime Watch program.

Detail:

Our Neighborhood Crime Watch will operate under a community policing principle. Both citizens and police will work together in partnership to reduce or eliminate the threat of crime in their neighborhoods. The partnership will be based largely on communication through meetings, newsletters, and one-on-one interaction.

The Neighborhood Crime Watch is really an extension of what citizens in our community are already doing. The program will seek to formalize what we do and who does what in conjunction with the community and local Police.

Our Neighborhood Crime Watch is simply a program of neighbors helping neighbors to prevent crime. No special equipment, skills, or tasks are required of anyone to participate. The only thing required of people in the community is that while at home they will be alert to what is going on in the neighborhood and act when required in a prescribed manner interfacing with the Neighborhood Crime Watch team and the CRPD from time to time.

In 2008 we accomplished the following within our Community:

· Created Neighborhood Crime Watch Sectors, consisting of Sector Coordinators, Neighborhood Captains, and Neighborhood Crime Watch Members.

· Working with the Lower Nazareth Twp. Manager, plan the installation of Neighborhood Crime Watch Signs throughout our community.

· Membership drive.

· Held monthly meetings with the Colonial Regional Police at our Municipal Building on Butztown Rd.

In 2009 and beyond we will seek to assess and implement as necessary the following potential additions to the program determined as necessary and required by and in the Community:

· Establish a senior citizen and disabled person House Watch Program.

· Identify Safe Houses for our school children.

· Learn about crime in our and surrounding communities.

· Learn what suspicious behavior to watch for and how to report it.

· Incorporate a Lower Nazareth Township vehicle ID.

· Distribute best practices for reducing home theft risks (home security).

· Distribute safety tips for runners and walkers.

· Distribute a vacation (home) checklist.

· Review the best methods to reduce the threat of a home invasion.

· Identify and report unsafe conditions within the township.

· Offer personal safety tips and communications

· Offer first aid, health and safety, fire prevention tips and communications

· Contribute to drug awareness in the Community

History of Neighborhood Crime Watch

The Neighborhood Crime Watch program has been around for many years in various communities across the country. The program has gone by many names such as Community Watch, Crime Watch and Neighborhood Watch. Whatever the name, the primary principle in all of them is the same, Neighborhood Crime prevention.

Neighborhood Crime Watch operates under the community policing principle that preventing Neighborhood Crime is everyone's responsibility. Both citizens and police work together in partnership to reduce or eliminate the threat of Neighborhood Crime in their neighborhoods. This partnership is based largely on communication through meetings, internet, newsletters, and one-on-one interaction.

Neighborhood Crime Watch is successful because people want to assume a more active role in their communities. Cooperative community effort is still society's most effective tool in accomplishing objectives too large for one individual. An isolated individual may have little control over his/her environment, but in cooperation with others, can accomplish much. Citizens can prevent Neighborhood Crime in their community and make it a safer, more secure place to live.

Although today's lifestyles tend to make it difficult to be as neighborly as we would like, being a good neighbor is one of the best methods of preventing Neighborhood Crime. Neighbors are often the best protection when they band together to watch out for each other's interests. The late Vice-President Hubert H. Humphrey stated, "The impersonal hand of government can never replace the helping hand of a neighbor." This statement reflects the theme of Neighborhood Crime Watch.

Neighborhood Crime Watch is really an extension of what you are probably already doing on an informal basis. People tend to know and watch out for their closest neighbors, but a group of neighbors at one end of the Neighborhood may not know the group of neighbors on the other end of the Neighborhood.

Neighborhood Crime Watch is simply a program of neighbors helping neighbors to prevent Crime. No special equipment, skills, or tasks are required of anyone to participate. The only thing required of you is that while you are at home you should be alert to what's going on in your neighborhood. A police officer patrolling the neighborhood may not recognize a stranger in your yard, but your neighbor would.

The program works through cooperation - neighbors watching out for neighbors. Each neighbor can effectively watch those homes to each side, the front and the back of his or her own home. Citizens are strongly encouraged to call 9-1-1 to report illegal or suspicious activities they have witnessed. Citizens are recommended not to confront any suspicious person(s), attempt to apprehend anyone, or jeopardize their own safety in anyway.

Additional Crime Watch Information

Neighborhood Crime Watch involves two commitments:

A commitment between neighbors to be concerned about each other's property, and
A commitment that when suspicious activity is observed, a call is placed to check on the neighbor's welfare and the activity is reported to 9-1-1.

Neighborhood Crime Watch is a Neighborhood Crime prevention program that:

Teaches citizens techniques to reduce their risk of being victimized at their home and in public.
Teaches citizens the importance of recognizing suspicious activities and how to report them to police.
Teaches participants how to make their homes more secure and properly mark their property.
Allows neighbors to get to know one another and their routines so that any out of place activity can be reported and investigated.
Allows a way for concerned citizens to address issues that concern the entire community.

Neighborhood Crime Watch does not have to be restricted to Neighborhood Crime prevention issues. Neighborhood Crime Watch can also address other community issues, as well as drug awareness, personal safety, first aid, health and safety, fire prevention, city planning, street repair, homeland security and disaster preparedness.

Neighborhood Crime Watch is not:

A citizen's patrol or vigilante force.
Designed for participants to take personal risks to prevent Neighborhood Crime.
Limited to homeowners. The concept of neighbor watching out for neighbor is just as important for renters as it is for homeowners.
A guarantee that Neighborhood Crime will not occur in a neighborhood.