Are you involved with your local neighborhood watch program?

I have recently become involved with setting up a neighborhood watch group in my area. I am really a beginner and quite clueless on the subject, so any information or suggestions you could share would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Jos

no but i keep a eye on things down here at my end of the road! ;)
we are in the country and most of us are very close here-its great
we kinda all watch out for each other.

we have a couple at the other end of the road that are both
michigan state police! :)

So you have a "unofficial" watch :)
I have been here since 1989, and we have never had any trouble in this neighborhood until just recently. Most of our neighbors know each other and the neighbor directly next door holds a yearly 4th of July block party. So over all its good people. What we are running into though is several people's homes have been broken into during the day (while we are all working of course), mine included. So we have decided to become more proactive about looking out for each other. The homes in my neighborhood are all older homes a few of which the long time residents have passed on. These few properties have unfortunately been turned into rental properties. Now of course we don't know anything for sure but with my place and one other the breakins happened within a matter of hours that our homes were empty. This is what leads us to believe it is someone who knows our hours and patterns. What the watch program has done for us so far is getting numbers for each other and really getting to know each other. I also like the fact that our local police have given us plenty of support and great literature about protecting ourselves and our property. They give examples of suspicious people/vehicles and what to look out for. I guess I am just looking for any and all information people may have about succesful programs in their areas. We can never be too informed, or too careful imho!

ASk your Police Department. They can give you all the info. I know when I joined our watch program...about 20 years ago..I had to go thru a screening...police check..first. I don't really have any other offers in helping you but that one.

Mary

Many times when an entire block has been victimized, the person usually lives nearby and is usually a teenage male. I say usually because each case is different. I read this somewhere so.....

An accurate contact list is important. It isnt a bad idea to add the types of cars your neighbors drive.
The bad thing about neighborhood watches is that the culprit may in fact be one of you.

Well it sounds like we are on the right track by all of your comments.
We did get our local police involved, or should I say they helped us get started. They will offer different informational type meetings as things progress.
The neighbors are all thinking along your lines Mobi. One of the young people in the rentals..
The contact list is actually one of the first things our community svcs officer helped us to get arranged. Offered information from his experience and some literature to help us along.
I have often wondered MSJen, if it was really safe to have meetings in our homes. Thats why our 1st and only one to date was in a backyard. Maybe as things progress and we become more familar with each other we will feel differently. I sure hope so..

Thanks for the feedback all!

we have the luxury in our neighborhood of having a local country store that is the meeting place..you cant walk in and out of there, you need at least 10 mins to shoot the *&it with everyone, lol.
the meetings were held there, which kept our homes safe, but ironically the person that was ultimately implicated in our neighborhood thefts was there at every one.

Familiarity with schedules and where things are kept in the home, what kinds of items we have in our homes and maybe even their values, home and cell phone numbers, etc. are all valuable tools of the trade of vandalism and theft. That is why the victims are well known to each other and the criminal.