Crime Prevention Unit
The ABCs of Neighborhood Watch

• Any community resident can join -- young and old, single and married, renter and home owner.
• A few concerned residents, a community organization, or a law enforcement agency can spearhead the effort to organize a Watch.
• Members learn how to make their homes more secure, watch out for each other and the neighborhood, and report activities that raise their suspicions to the police or sheriff's office.
• You can form a Watch group around any geographical unit: a block, apartment, park, business area, public housing complex, office, marina.
• Watch groups are not vigilantes. They are extra eyes and ears for reporting crime and helping neighbors. Neighborhood Watch helps build pride and serves as a springboard for efforts that address community concerns such as recreation for youth, child care, and affordable housing.

Getting Organized

Forming a Neighborhood Watch is a challenge. Here are a few tips to get your group started.
• Contact the police department or local crime prevention organization for help in training members in home security and reporting skills and for information on local crime patterns.
• Select a coordinator and block captains who are responsible for organizing meetings and relaying information to members.
• Recruit members, keeping up-to-date on new residents and making special efforts to involve the elderly, working parents, and young people.
• Work with local government or law enforcement to put up Neighborhood Watch signs, usually after at least 50 percent of all households are enrolled.

Neighbors Look For...
• Someone screaming or shouting for help
• Someone looking into windows and parked cars
• Unusual noises
• Property being taken out of closed businesses or houses where no one is at home
• Cars, vans, or trucks moving slowly with no apparent destination, or without lights
• Anyone being forced into a vehicle
• A stranger sitting in a car or stopping to talk to a child
• Abandoned cars

Report these incidents to the police or sheriff's department. Talk with your neighbors about the problem.

How to Report
• Give your name and address.
• Briefly describe the event -- what happened, when, where, and who was involved.
• Describe the suspect: sex, race, age, height, weight, hair color, clothing, distinctive characteristics such as beard, mustache, scars, or accent.
• Describe the vehicle if one was involved: color, make, model, year, license plate, and special features such as stickers, dents, or decals.

Staying Alive!

It's an unfortunate fact that when a neighborhood crime crisis goes away, so does enthusiasm for Neighborhood Watch. Work to keep your Watch group a vital force for community well-being.

• Organize regular meetings that focus on current issues such as drug abuse, bias-motivated violence, crime in schools, child care before and after school, recreational activities for young people, and victim services.
• Organize community patrols to walk around streets or apartment complexes and alert police to crime and suspicious activities and identify problems needing attention. People in cars with cellular phones or CB radios can patrol.
• Adopt a park or school playground. Pick up litter, repair broken equipment, paint over graffiti.
• Work with local building code officials to require dead bolt locks, smoke alarms, and other safety devices in new and existing homes and commercial buildings. Work with parent groups and schools to start a block parent program (to help children in emergency situations.)
• Publish a newsletter that gives prevention tips and local crime news, recognizes residents of all ages who have made a difference, and highlights community events.
• Don't forget social events that give neighbors a chance to know each other -- a block party, potluck dinner, volleyball or softball game, picnic.

Burglary Prevention Tips

• KEEP ALL WINDOWS & DOORS SECURELY FASTENED. Doors should have deadbolt locks with a 1" throw & reinforced strike plate with 3" screws. Sliding glass doors should have a metal rod or a piece of strong wood in the track to prevent it from being forced.
• CREATE AN ILLUSION THAT YOU ARE HOME. Use timers on lights, radios or TV to make it appear your house is occupied. Avoid clues that might tip a thief off that you are away, even for the night. Collect mail, newspapers and have a neighbor park a car in your driveway. Keep some blinds or shades open (preferably on the 2nd floor) so everything appears normal.
• KEEP PERIMETER OF YOUR HOME CLEAR & WELL LIGHTED. Keep shrubbery trimmed away from entrances and walkways. Install motion lights or permanent spotlights to deter prowlers.
• COMMUNICATE WITH YOUR NEIGHBORS. Let them know when you will be away, even if it's just for a day or evening. Also let them know if you will be having visitors who might be driving vehicles that are unfamiliar to them, or if someone will be coming to your home while you are out.
• SAFEGUARD YOUR VALUABLES. Engrave jewelry, watches, TV's and other portable items with your social security other identifiable label. Consider storing jewelry and cash in a bank safe deposit box, or a hidden safe in your home. Most burglars go dire ctly to the master bedroom, so avoid storing them there.
• REPORT ANY SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY IMMEDIATELY TO THE POLICE. Any person, vehicle, event or activity which seems odd or suspicious should be called into the police as soon as possible. Try to obtain as much descriptive information about the person (sex , race, clothing, age, hght, wght, hair) or vehicle (lic plate, color, make, model, occupants) as you can, without alerting possible suspects.

If you have any questions or concerns please call the Chatham Borough police at anytime. The phone number is 973-635-8000. If there is an emergency, dial 9-1-1.
If you want to have a home security survey done, or start a neighborhood watch program, contact CSO Scott Davis