[RP TownTalk] Starting Up Neighborhood Watch (Again)

[David Hiles]

Some residents are interested in starting up Neighborhood Watch  
again. According to people who have been involved in these in the  
past, there is usually an initial flurry of participation followed by  
a quick dropoff to nothing.  This is the pattern in many communities,  
not just Riverdale Park.

Here is a quote from a report to Congress (http://www.ncjrs.gov/works/ 
wholedoc.htm) on the effectiveness of various crime prevention programs.

"7. Community Policing

The results of available tests of the community policing hypotheses  
are mixed. The evidence against the effectiveness of police  
organizing communities into neighborhood watches is consistent and  
relatively strong. The evidence about the crime prevention benefits  
of more information flowing from citizens to police is at best only  
promising. The two tests of police sending more information to  
citizens are both very strong, but clearly falsify the hypothesis.  
The tests of increasing police legitimacy are the most promising,  
especially since they draw on a powerful theoretical perspective that  
is gaining growing empirical support.

One of the most consistent findings in the literature is also the  
least well-known to policymakers and the public. The oldest and best- 
known community policing program, Neighborhood Watch, is ineffective  
at preventing crime. That conclusion is supported by moderately  
strong evidence, including a randomized experiment in Minneapolis  
that tried to organize block watch programs with and without police  
participation in areas that had not requested assistance (Pate et al,  
1987). The primary problem found by the evaluations is that the areas  
with highest crime rates are the most reluctant to organize (Hope,  
1995). Many people refuse to host or attend community meetings, in  
part because they distrust their neighbors. Middle class areas, in  
which trust is higher, generally have little crime to begin with,  
making measurable effects on crime almost impossible to achieve. The  
program cannot even be justified on the basis of reducing middle  
class fear of crime and flight from the city, since no such effects  
have been found. Rather, Skogan (1990) finds evidence that  
Neighborhood Watch increases fear of crime."

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We might get more crime-fighting bang for our scarce volunteer hour  
by doing things like

	a) calling in every burnt-out streetlight to Pepco or getting that  
made a town staff work item,  maybe surveyed once a month on a  
scheduled basis

	b) aggressively pursuing code enforcement violations that lend an  
air of neglect to the area, with citizen participation in terms of  
calling in violations

	c) join/work on a committee aimed at redeveloping the apartment  
section of town into a more successful community, thereby reducing  
police workload

	d) leaving porch lights on

	e) drinking g&t's or dirty martinis while sitting on the front porch