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NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH
SCHEME
WHAT IS A NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH?
It is a way of helping your street, village or area prevent crime and vandalism.
WHO CAN TAKE PART?
You can. Any member of the community can join Neighbourhood Watch if you are interested, aware and NEIGHBOURLY. Busy bodies and vigilante types need not apply.
WHAT DO YOU DO?
Be alert to suspicious incidents, vehicles or people in the street, and quickly tell the Police or watch co-ordinator what you have seen.
Help prevent crime by protecting your home-security postcode your valuables and if you need to, improve the security of your house with window locks and good door locks and chains. The police crime prevention officers will gladly advise you what to do.
WHAT DO YOU GET FROM THE POLICE
Each neighbourhood watch scheme has a designated officer and a scheme administrator who will make regular contact with the watch co-ordinator, and visit the scheme as often as is possible. Urgent information will be passed to your scheme via your co-ordinator and a telephone cascade system
WHAT WILL HAPPEN AS YOUR SCHEME DEVELOPS?
Criminals will avoid your area if they know their activities will be reported promptly
Your neighbours should get to know each other better
Your community importantly will feel safer and more secure
As members of Neighbourhood watch you will receive window/door stickers and a security booklet, also available free postcode marker pens, purchase at beneficial prices, of personal attack alarms, door chains and viewers. Insurance companies may offer discounts to active scheme members.
NOW ASK YOURSELF: CAN YOU AFORD NOT TO START A SCHEME?
Please complete the enclosed membership form
I will collect completed forms on…………………………at………
Or return to: -
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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DUMFRIES AND
NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH SCHEMES
COMPUTERISED INFORMATION DATA BASE
Compliance with Data Protection Act
NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH MEMBERSHIP FORM
Name,…………………………………………………………………………………
Address, …………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
Post code, ……………………………Tel: No.………………………………………
Name of Watch Scheme
I hereby authorise the above name and
address to be included on the Neighbourhood Watch computerised Data base and
the
Signed, …………………………………………………………………………………………
Date, …………………………………………………………………………………………
ANY CHANGE IN PERSONAL PARTICULARS MUST BE NOTIFIED TO YOUR WATCH ADMINISTRATOR AS SOON AS POSSIBLE
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BEING AWARE
This is what neighbourhood watch is about, neighbours with concern for others and the area in which they live,
and a willingness to help reduce crime and the fear of crime, to be alert to anything unusual that is happening,
strangers in the street, vehicles parked at houses when neighbours are away to work, or on holiday, and the
awareness to ring the police at the time with details of what has been seen. Criminals will for the most part
avoid your area if they know that their activities will be reported promptly.
Neighbourhood watch members are encouraged to help prevent crime by protecting their home and valuables,
to security mark property with postcodes, improve house security by fitting window locks and good door locks
and chains. The police crime prevention officers will gladly advise you on what to do, with a free survey.
Members of Neighbourhood Watch can take advantage of free postcode maker pens and security booklets,
and purchase at beneficial prices, Personal attack alarms, Door chains (suitable for wood doors), and Door
viewers. Members will from time to time receive information either as a newsletter or, for urgent matters,
a phone call via the cascade system operated by our watch schemes (further details below).
Spot anything suspicious report immediately with as much information
To the Police as possible. Make, colour, registration
Persons seen
With good, quick information good quick information
The Police can react positively enables good use of the
Cascade telephone system
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH SCHEMES
CASCADE TELEPHONE INFORMATION
A message will be generated by your administrator or local police office
This will be passed to the co-ordinator of your scheme
The co-ordinator will then pass this to the first person listed in your scheme
The first person in turn should contact the second person listed
The second to the third – third to the fourth and so on down the list
The last person should contact the co-ordinator or first person listed
to confirm they have received the message.
Should a person not answer, let’s say number two on the list then you
should try and contact number three or if need be number four and so on
The ring should be completed even if only a small number of persons are available
Some knowledge of events is better than none
Co-ordinators or first persons listed in scheme’s have the same procedure for
their area group
Example
Any Street
Neighbourhood watch
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J B Small |
6 Any Street |
01576 12345 ¬ ¯ |
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B J Big |
1 Any Street |
01576 34689 ¯ |
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A Little |
3 Any Street |
01576 13579 ¯ |
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T Large |
5 Any Street |
01576 13456 ¯ |
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M Smith |
4 Any Street |
01576 33489 ¯ |
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T Green |
2 Any Street |
01576 30229 ¯ ® |
Any Town Police Station 0845 600 6701 This leaflet is sponsored by
Tel; 01387 702388
Crimestoppers 0800 555 111
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NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH TOOLKIT
Quick Guide
INTRODUCTION
This toolkit is designed to provide
guidance on how to set-up, maintain and develop Neighbourhood Watch
(NW) in
It is intended to meet the needs of people
new to NW, existing members and partners such as the Police.
The toolkit provides easy to follow
sections that can be accessed in sequence or you may chose to go
straight to a section that is of interest to you.
CONTENT
1. What is Neighbourhood Watch?
2. What are the benefits of NW?
3. Neighbourhood Watch in
4. Getting started
5. NW Roles and Responsibilities
6. Communicating
7. Sustaining your scheme
8. Public Liability Insurance
9. Resource Library
1. What is Neighbourhood Watch?
Neighbourhood Watch (NW) is a community led initiative to bring groups
of local people
together to address local crime and other community issues. Successful
Neighbourhood
Watch requires a close liaison between households in a neighbourhood,
the local police
and the
local authority.
The concept originated in the
Behind it lies a very simple idea… “Working together can help to help
improve your
community”.
Neighbourhood Watches can be large, covering most of the households on
an estate, or
they
might involve just a few houses.
2. What are the benefits of NW?
• Areas of
local concern can be addressed
• Your problem
becomes a shared problem
• You are not a
lone voice
• You can work
together with other NW Schemes, the police and other partners
•
providers
• Being a
member of NW may secure a discount on your house insurance
3. Neighbourhood Watch in
In 2007
schemes were long established a considerable amount comprised inactive schemes
being
steadily replaced by new schemes. Overall the numbers of NW schemes has remained
fairly static.
Some areas of
Area Associations to provide focus and support for local schemes and to
share good
practice.
In May 2006 the Association of Scottish Neighbourhood Watches was
established. Their
Committee comprises NW representation from all Police Force areas.
In 2006 the AoSNW gained approval from the
Home Office to use a Scottish logo. It is not
intended that all signage or use of other NW logos will be withdrawn, however
the new
logo
should help NW develop within a Scottish context.
In June 2006 the AoSNW launched their website
to offer advice and information with a
facility for members to participate in various forums. For more information you
can log
onto www.aosnw.co.uk.
4. Getting started
Every Neighbourhood Watch is different – One size does not fit all! It
all depends on the
area and
what people living there actually want.
Modern life can be demanding and people can find it increasingly
difficult to free up their
time for
Neighbourhood Watch or other community led initiatives. Therefore whatever you
do…
… Keep it
simple!
1. Contact your local police station. The police may be able to put you
in contact with
established NW schemes in your area.
2. If your have
access to the Internet the Association of Scottish Neighbourhood
Watches website: www.aosnw.co.uk may provide guidance and contacts.
Residents can contact the Fife NW
Association www.nwfife.co.uk email
nwfife@aosnw.co.uk
3. If there is
no established NHW for your specific area and other residents are
interested the police will assist you in setting up a scheme. In this case someone
will have
to volunteer to become the co-ordinator.
Gauge the level of support for setting up a NHW scheme
Ask yourself?
1. Why do we
wish to set up a NHW scheme in the area?
2. What are the
local concerns?
3. What will be
the aims of the NHW scheme?
To gauge the level of support for setting up a NHW scheme in your area
you will have to
conduct a survey.
Generic questionnaires and audit forms can be obtained
at www.aosnw.co.uk
You are now ready to identify the level of support for creating a scheme
within a defined
geographical area.
Ideally you want nearly half of households within your defined area to
be supportive of the
scheme.
Don’t be dismayed if the level of support is lower than you expected.
You may need to establish it in a smaller area to begin with and allow
the scheme to grow
from
there.
Remember again - Keep it simple!
Having gained the necessary support for establishing a NHW scheme you
should, in
conjunction with your local police contact, and any local or regional NW
Association,
arrange an initial meeting.
The meeting should be within a suitable venue (not your home) and at a
time convenient
to the
majority of members. The objectives for the meeting could include the following
points.
• Identifying
the name of
the NHW scheme
• Identifying a
co-ordinator(s)
• Agreement on objectives for the
scheme
• Agreement on local concerns and
required activities to address these
concerns
• Determine how
you are going to communicate – meetings, newsletter, by phone,
e-mail, word of mouth etc.
• Consider how
you will fund activities – producing newsletters, signage, booking
meeting venues can cost money!
• If you are to
have NHW signage where can/should it be sited.
5. NW Roles and Responsibilities
The role of the NW Co-ordinator is to:
• Contact
individual households in the neighbourhood to determine the level of
support for setting up a NW scheme
• Where support
is positive arrange a meeting to discuss setting up a scheme
• Set up and
maintain a Neighbourhood Watch within a specific area
• Communicate
relevant crime and community safety information in the area
• Communicate
information from members to police or local authority
• Act as a link
between the scheme, other co-ordinators, the local
police, NW
Associations (where applicable), the local
authority and other relevant agencies.
There are a number of tasks that a co-ordinator
can become involved in once the scheme
is set
up:
• Supplying
individual households with stickers for doors and windows as well as
relevant support materials (see documentation section)
• Assisting
police and other relevant agencies in delivering public reassurance and
community safety/crime prevention initiatives
• Circulating
newsletters/leaflets and any equipment available to members, such as
property marking kits or response service house alarms
• Encouraging
members to provide community intelligence to police, e.g. suspicious
or
criminal incidents
• Keeping in
touch with other schemes in the area
• Monitoring
the scheme’s activities and keeping a check on vulnerable households
and
newcomers to the neighbourhood
• Identifying
local environmental problems and reporting these to the relevant
authority
The role of the Police
Historically the police were the primary and often the only conduit for
the community safety
issues identified within neighbourhoods. The demands
on policing have increased
considerably over recent years and the traditional ‘village bobby’ role is rarely
achievable.
Nonetheless Community Policing remains a cornerstone for service
delivery and the link
between community police officers and their NW schemes is a key element for
healthy and
sustainable schemes.
The police role is to:
• Assist in the
establishment of Neighbourhood Watch
• Communicate
with co-ordinators in respect of the incidence of
crime in their areas
• Work in
partnership with NW and other relevant partners to address community
safety issues, provide public reassurance and crime prevention advice
• Provide a
point(s) of contact for local police
Today, for NW to be successful, schemes must engage with a wider range
of agencies in
addressing neighbourhood concerns.
6. Communicating
Communication is the fuel on which Neighbourhood Watch runs. When
communication
stops NW
can come to a grinding halt.
The essential elements of effective communication within NW are:
• Accuracy
- Inaccurate information may be
inconvenient – people turn up for an 8
o’clock meeting when it was changed to 7 o’clock – to very serious - a
suspicious
vehicle is seen at a neighbours house and rather than say I don’t know the full
registration number you make a guess leading to wrong identification.
• Conveyed
at appropriate time - You see someone within a neighbours home
when you
think they may be on holiday. You inform them when they return only to
find out
the house has been broken into during their absence
• Conveyed
in the right method - You send an e-mail around
members seeking
information, however 30% of the membership don’t use the internet.
• Passed
to the right person
• Feedback
- you must provide the opportunity for
people to respond.
Above all else - Keep your communication simple
An effective partnership between NW and the police is vitally important.
Police Officers
must
contend with competing demands and it is unlikely that your local community
officer
can
attend all your meetings. It is important to explore other ways of maintaining
communication. It helps if there is an established point of contact within your
police
division or area who can provide support when your own community officer is
unavailable.
Although technology such as e-mail and
text messaging can assist. Your
communication
method must work for your particular scheme and may comprise a number of
methods to
cascade information.
Although any emergency call should use the 999 system, consider how
relevant your call
is
before you contact the police. For minor, non urgent issues it may be better to
maintain
an
incident log that can be discussed at a future meeting or with your local
community
officer. Incident logs are particularly valuable when dealing with anti-social
issues.
Circulating information around the scheme may also be urgent or
non-urgent. Very urgent
information may have to be passed by word of mouth.
Matters of less urgency may be dealt with by e-mail or ring round
systems. Non urgent
matters can be dealt with through newsletters or at meetings
To maintain communication and to benefit from community intelligence it
is vital that
people know what happened to information they passed on, otherwise they think
it was
ignored or of no importance. Feedback encourages people to report things again
rather
than
thinking ‘it is a waste of time so why bother’.
It is important that police and co-ordinators
work together to provide feedback.
7. Sustaining your scheme
Throughout the history of NW new schemes have been established at a
steady rate,
however the number of active NWs has remained
relatively static. The main reason for this
is that
although relatively easy to set up the ability to sustain NW schemes through time
can be
challenging. The main reasons for poor sustainability have been: -
• No clear aims
or objectives
• Lack of
communication
• Ineffective
partnership between NW and police
• Over reliance
on a small number of individuals within schemes
• Constantly
changing residence within neighbourhoods
• Reduced
opportunities for communities to meet and discuss common issues
Although there are many reasons why NW schemes may falter there is good
practice that
can be
adopted to help sustain NW:
• Communication
is key - effective
communication is already covered in this toolkit.
• The
partnership between police and NW must comprise trust, be reliable and have
realistic expectations - the
police should not be only conduit for airing community
concerns. Any partnership must meet the needs of
both partners. Keep things
simple – have realistic objectives with tangible
results. A small success is better
than no success and the frustration associated
with trying to make sweeping
changes within your community.
• Responsibilities
within a NW scheme must be shared and not rest on the coordinator
- deputising and
succession planning for co-ordinator roles can bring
great benefit
• The structure
of your NW, regularity and timing of meetings and activities must meet
the
needs of the majority of your members, not a select few.
• Let new
residents know about your NW and the benefits it brings
• Share your
challenges, successes and ideas with other NW schemes - our strength
is in shared expertise and experience –
Working together can bring increased
success and aid sustainability.
8. Public Liability Insurance
The Scottish Government in conjunction with the Association of Scottish
Neighbourhood
Watches has provided Public Liability Insurance for all registered Scottish NW
schemes.
The insurance cover is provided through Keegan & Pennykid
(Insurance Brokers) Ltd.
Although cover is provided free of charge to all approved Neighbourhood
Watches, there
is a
requirement that the individual schemes are formally registered with the AoSNW as it
is this
body that handles the financial (premium) affairs, holds records of number of
watches, members etc.
Registration is free and forms can be downloaded from the www.aosnw.co.uk and returned
FREEPOST.
The insurance covers 3rd party risks in respect of injury and damage
whilst carrying out
the
specific duties of NW. For full details of the terms of insurance go to www.keeganpennykid.
com
9. Resource Library
Various documents to help you set up and maintain your scheme are
available on this site under
useful paperwork or at www.aosnw.co.uk