Neighborhood Watch

The Neighborhood Watch program is the most effective means available for keeping crime out of our neighborhoods. It relies on the best crime-fighting tool ever invented – a good neighbor. Fortunately, good neighbors are found everywhere. They live in houses, apartment buildings, urban, suburban, and rural areas.

When neighbors work together with law enforcement, one of the best crime fighting teams around is created. Be a good neighbor and make your community safer from criminals by starting a Neighborhood Watch program. Remember, people acting on their own will not win the battle against crime.

What is Neighborhood Watch?

Neighborhood Watch is a crime prevention program that enlists the active participation of citizens in cooperation with law enforcement to reduce crime in their communities.

It Involves:

• Neighbors getting to know each other, taking the time to care about each other and working together in a program of mutual assistance.
• Citizens being trained to recognize and report suspicious activities in their neighborhoods.
• Crime prevention strategies such as home security, Operation Identification and others being implemented by citizens.

You may hear it called Neighborhood Watch, Home Alert, Citizens Crime Watch or Block Watch. The names differ, but the idea is the same.

Why Neighborhood Watch?

There can’t be a law enforcement officer on every street corner, so citizen involvement is essential to combat crime. You and your neighbors are the ones who really know what is going on in your neighborhood. By cooperating with each other and the police, people can help fight crime in their community in the most effective way – before it starts.

Neighborhood Watch members place stickers in their windows and post Neighborhood Watch signs on streets, warning criminals that they are in a active Neighborhood Watch Community, and that neighbors are looking out for each other.

How Do I Start a Neighborhood Watch Program?

• Contact Laguna Niguel Police Services Crime Prevention Specialist Jill Davidson at (949) 362-4365.
• Explain that you would like to start a Neighborhood Watch program and ask for assistance.
• Ask about crime conditions in your Neighborhood.
• Ask to have a law enforcement representative at your first meeting to discuss crime in your neighborhood.

Neighborhood Watch is only the beginning. It can be the basis for an ongoing dialogue and cooperative relationship with law enforcement and the City of Laguna Niguel.

Remember to report all criminal and suspicious activity to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department toll free at (949) 770-6011.

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