Neighborhood watch

A neighborhood watch or neighbourhood watch (see spelling differences), also called a crime watch or neighbourhood crime watch, is an organized group of civilians devoted to crime and vandalism prevention within a neighborhood. In other words, neighborhood watch is a crime prevention scheme under which civilians agree together to keep an eye on one another's properties, patrol the street, and report suspicious incidents to law enforcement.

The aim of neighborhood watch includes educating residents of a community on security and safety and achieving safe and secure neighborhoods. However, when a criminal activity is suspected, members are encouraged to report to authorities, and not to intervene.

In the United States, neighborhood watch builds on the concept of a town watch from Colonial America.

Organization and history

A neighborhood watch may be organized as its own group or may simply be a function of a neighborhood association or other community association.

Neighborhood watches are not vigilante organizations. When suspecting criminal activities, members are encouraged to contact authorities and not to intervene.

Neighbourhood Watch (Ayckbourn play)

Neighbourhood Watch is a 2011 play by Alan Ayckbourn. It is about a brother and sister who innocently set up a Neighbourhood Watch group following petty crime from a nearby estate, only for the group to go out of control and become an authoritarian force controlling the lives of the people they are supposed to protect.

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Neighbourhood Watch (United Kingdom)

The Neighbourhood Watch scheme in the United Kingdom is a partnership where people come together to make their communities safer. It involves the Police, Community Safety departments of local authorities, other voluntary organisations and, above all, individuals and families who want to make their neighbourhoods better places to live. It aims to help people protect themselves and their properties and to reduce the fear of crime by means of improved home security, greater vigilance, accurate reporting of suspicious incidents to the police and by fostering a community spirit.

History

The UK's first Neighbourhood Watch was set up in Mollington, Cheshire in 1982 following the success of a similar scheme in Chicago in the United States. Many more schemes followed throughout the UK, and it is now claimed that 3.8 million households are covered by a scheme.

The neighbourhood watch schemes covers many aspects of community safety including, but not limited to, crime.