NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH BECOMES A CAMPUS WATCH

In the aftermath of September 11^th, safety, as we have known it, has changed. The necessity for community participation has become paramount. Although law enforcement takes every precaution known to them, assurance of public safety is frail without the assistance of the community. The university community, students, faculty, and staff, must take an active roll, whether directly or indirectly, in participating in the defense of their environment. This roll is the same as the roll within a community’s Neighborhood Watch.

The Neighborhood Watch Program is a self-help community crime prevention program with the main objective being to reduce crime, and the opportunity for crime. It was created to obtain citizen involvement in discouraging and preventing residential crime. Neighborhood watch programs are not designed to substitute for police protection; rather they supplement police activities by providing extra eyes, ears, and caring. Neighborhood Watch is people looking out for people and it is considered a major deterrent against crime.

The Neighborhood Watch operates to educate participants in the principles of deterrence, delay, and detection. The program depends on a communications network organized with three levels of participants—the residents, block captains, and a local law enforcement representative. The Neighborhood Watch roles are many. The roles range from arranging for security survey of residences, obtain phone numbers of residents on each side of their residence, notify block captains when one is on vacation or away from home, watch out for all unfamiliar vehicles and report its description and license number to block captains, report suspicious activity to law enforcement agency and be prepared to give detailed descriptions. The block captains act as a liaison between the neighborhood community and law enforcement agency.

A university campus Neighborhood Watch, or Campus Watch, acts in a similar manner as that of the Community Neighborhood Watch; members are observant to an assortment of situations and report all information to their law enforcement representative. Campus Watch includes faculty, staff, and students. Added sources of participants are within the student organizations. Each department has a representative who also passes information onto the representative. The representative is one officer who is responsible for receiving, coordinating, and investigating the information obtained.

In order to ensure the personal safety and the safety of personal property of students, faculty, and staff on college and university campus’; everyone must join the pledge to help to strengthen campus defense against crime. A Campus Watch should keep their campus law enforcement abreast of changes in their community members’ behavior, suspicious activities on and around campus, unfamiliar faces, and anything else one would consider being out of the ordinary. The time is now to take a stand and join in the fight for your safety within your chosen environment.

Text Only Options