Neighborhood Watch and Its Effect on the Community

Neighborhood Watch and its Effect on the Community The Neighborhood Watch program is one of the oldest forms of organized community crime prevention in the United States. Its history dates back as far as the late 1960s. As a method of fighting and preventing crime in residential communities, this program has shown to be very effective. This paper will cover the beginning of the Neighborhood Watch program, its growth up to the present day, and a few of its success stories. Neighborhood Watch is one of the oldest and most familiar plans for crime prevention. While the present-day concept of Neighborhood Watch was started in the late 1960s as an answer to the problem of increasing crime in communities, the general concept of this program can be traced all the way back to the time of the American settlers. In Colonial times, night watchmen walked the streets of the very first communities in this country. In the 1960s, due to a rising number of burglaries in rural and suburban areas, law enforcement officials around the country began searching for a crime prevention program which would allow private citizens to play a role in the fight against crime. The National Sheriff’s Association, or NSA, set the bar for such a program when they introduced a concept they called the National Neighborhood Watch Program (NNWP) (National Crime Prevention Council). The NNWP received funding in 1972 from the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration. During the first two years, the program concentrated on providing citizens with information on the nature and volume of burglaries, and also with information on how to make their property more secure and less susceptible to potential burglars. Gradually, the program shifted its focus towards aiding in the establishment of Neighborhood Watch programs that would allow members of a community to work with local police officers in reducing crime in their respective neighborhoods (National Crime Prevention Council). Most present

Cited: Klaas Kids Foundation. “Fight Back: Safeguard Your Community.” 2002. http://www.klaaskids.org/pg-homeland.htm. National Crime Prevention Council. “Neighborhood Watch.” 2008. http://www.ncpc.org/topics/neighborhood-watch. National Sheriffs’ Association. “About Neighborhood Watch.” USAonwatch.org. 2008. http://www.usaonwatch.org/AboutUs/AboutNeighborhoodWatch.php