10 March 2009
Neighborhood Watch Programs Help Build Citizen-Police Trust
Communities find fighting residential crime requires cooperation
Washington — As a police patrol car drives slowly down a residential street, all seems calm and no suspicious activity is in evidence. But moments after the cruiser has left, thieves and other lawbreakers get back to work.
To catch these criminals, police officers need the many eyes and ears of the law-abiding residents living in the neighborhood, but all too often, citizens do not trust police and police do not have friendly relations with the people they are paid to protect. In the United States, a program called “Neighborhood Watch” is changing that.
The U.S. Neighborhood Watch Program was established in 1972 by the National Sheriffs’ Association to unite law enforcement agencies, private organizations and individual citizens in a massive effort to reduce residential crime. Burglary, for example, accounts for nearly one-third of all serious crime reported in the United States, according to the association. This crime against property carries a high risk of injury or even death for the victim who comes into surprise contact with a burglar.
According to Christopher Tutko, director of the Neighborhood Watch Program for the association, some 20,000 local Neighborhood Watch programs are registered nationwide. He estimates that more than 50,000 informal programs are operating across the United States.
Neighborhood Watch programs, Tutko told America.gov, have proven effective. In the state of Virginia alone, Tutko said, where law enforcement agencies document every criminal incident whether or not arrests are made, statistics show neighborhoods with Neighborhood Watch programs have crime rates 40 percent lower than those neighborhoods without such a program.
“Law enforcement doesn’t know your neighborhood unless they live in it,” Tutko said. Only residents can recognize a car or person or activity that is out of place.
Moreover, there are not enough law enforcement officers to ensure the safety of everyone. According to Tutko, there are some 15,876 police departments in the United States; 80 percent of all local law enforcement agencies consist of 12 or fewer officers.
HOW NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH WORKS
In its simplest form, Neighborhood Watch is a way for citizens to meet their neighbors, learn how to protect themselves and each other and work with the police to maintain a safe neighborhood.
Starting a Neighborhood Watch Program does not have to be a formal procedure, Tutko said. Rather, it is a matter of neighbors getting together to discuss problems in the neighborhood and calling in a police officer to discuss what can be done.
“The neighborhood develops their Neighborhood Watch program,” Tutko said. “The police assist them — they don’t run it.” Officers, he said, are available to provide advice on security, such as the best methods to secure homes and automobiles, how to be alert to danger on the street, and how best to respond to a variety of threatening situations.
Residents are encouraged to meet regularly to share information about neighborhood problems with each other and with the police.
Police need citizen help to do their jobs successfully, Tutko said. Neighborhood Watch programs give police a relaxed venue in which to talk to citizens. Tutko, who formerly served as a police chief, observed: “If you didn’t talk to people, you didn’t get their help. You were isolated.”
FOSTERING TRUST
Neighborhood Watch programs are a good way to improve communication and trust between citizens and police, according to Tutko. “It’s a building process from both ends,” he said.
“You’ve got a lot of officers who ride around on patrol with their windows up and they’re unknown to the person in the neighborhood. They’re a uniform, and that’s it,” Tutko said.
But in the casual atmosphere of a Neighborhood Watch meeting, citizens can get to know the person wearing the uniform better. “You find out the guy behind the uniform speaks a language that you understand. He has a family; he has the same problems you have,” Tutko said. These nonstressful encounters give citizens a chance to view the officer differently, he said. “They don’t see him, like on TV, busting down a door or throwing somebody up against the car.”
Neighborhood Watch meetings also offer different perspectives to police.
Too many times, Tutko said, police officers go into a neighborhood, make their arrests and then go home at the end of the day. But the citizens trying to cope with crime in their neighborhoods often feel trapped in an environment that is threatening and often dangerous.
“Once the police officer gets to know the citizen, he understands, or at least sees, what that person has to go through every day,” Tutko said.
The National Sheriffs’ Association has developed guidance for Neighborhood Watch programs on a Web site — USAOnWatch.org — aimed at citizens as well as law enforcement.
More information is available on the USAOnWatch.org Web site.
