Start a Neighbourhood Watch group
Protect your home and get involved in your community by starting or joining a neighbourhood watch group. Here’s how to get started.
Being a good neighbour means more than just the occasional greeting or front yard chat, it’s about looking out for each other. While it may not be easy these days to foster strong communities, especially in large urban areas, it is possible. One program that continues to encourage strong ties among neighbours is Neighbourhood Watch.
The community based crime prevention program is administered by the state or territory’s police division. The program aims to reduce the incidence of preventable crime, such as burglary and theft, as well as promoting closer community ties. On top of bringing the community together, the program educates residents on security and safety, and how to report suspicious incidents to the police.
It’s a program that has proven popular in many neighbourhoods as it not only fosters a good relationship between the local police and the community, but it also educates residents on how to secure their home. It’s also a reassuring presence. You feel safer knowing you can knock on your next door neighbour’s door for help or the phone number to call to take you directly to your local police station.
While it may have started as a way to help police officers monitor criminal activity in suburbs, Neighbourhood Watch has grown to represent tighter communities and residents who know what to do in the event of a home invasion. Here’s how to get involved in your local group.
Join the watch
If you would like to get more involved in your local suburb and help prevent crime in your community, why not become a Neighbourhood Watch member? Volunteers are important parts of the Neighbourhood Watch story and have been directly involved in making the program one of the largest Australasian voluntary based community safety and crime prevention programs of its kind.
It takes many different people working together as part of a team to build Neighbourhood Watch in an area, with both active volunteers and participants. While the process of getting involved may differ between the states and territories, most will ask interested volunteers to complete an application form. This is usually downloaded from the Neighbourhood Watch website in your state or territory. There are guidelines to becoming a volunteer, so check with your local office for details.
Starting a new group
If there’s no Neighbourhood Watch group in the area you live in and you believe there’s a need for it in your local community, you can go about starting a new group. However, how you do this will depend on the state or territory you live in. Generally, a registration form needs to be completed, which involves a criminal record check of the person who is making the application for an area to be set up.
If you are interested in setting up a Neighbourhood Watch group or area, you need to make sure you understand all of the guidelines and requirements of what would be involved in setting up and then maintaining the area. However, you don’t need to be involved in anything formal to set up a Neighbourhood Watch area, since the organisation is all about getting to know your neighbour, looking out for each other and reporting any suspicious activity to your local police station.
While each state operates differently, the philosophy is the same – to protect your home, you and your family, and your neighbours.