Huntington Ridge Homeowners

NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH PROGRAM

GENERAL INFORMATION

Crime continues to be a major concern of both citizens and their law enforcement agencies, although the alarming increase in crime in America in recent years appears to be leveling off.
Since 1990, national trends show burglaries down 32 percent. A large part of the credit for this encouraging news can go to an effective idea which is available to citizens nationwide: the National Neighborhood Watch Program.
The National Neighborhood Watch Program is designed to involve individual citizens in the crime prevention process. It was organized in 1972 by the National Sheriffs’ Association in response to the requests of several national law enforcement groups to develop a crime prevention program based on citizen participation.
When citizens take positive steps by learning how to secure their property and report suspicious activities around their homes, they are helping themselves as well as their neighbors. Neighborhood Watch focuses on the prevention of residential burglary.
Here’s why: The estimated 2.1 million burglaries committed in the United States in 1999 account for approximately 18 percent of reported serious crime. Two of every three burglaries in 1999 were committed in houses, apartments or other residential dwellings. The majority of residential burglaries (60 percent) occurred during daylight hours, while non-residential burglaries occurred primarily at night.
Burglary is expensive to the victim. In 1999, while the average loss for both residential and non-residential property burglaries declined from the previous year, victims still experienced an estimated total loss of $3.1 billion. The average dollar loss per residential burglary was $1,441.00 and for non-residential burglaries $1,490.00.
About 64 percent of all burglaries required forcing a door or window to gain entry. Most houses and apartments are protected by simple and relatively ineffective door and window locks. Modern hardware is available for these locks which will stop the amateur and slow up the experienced burglar. In communities of every size during 1999, the number of burglaries and the financial loss to the victims point to the continued need for vigilance.
Target hardening, or protecting vulnerable areas of your home and property by means of physical security devices, is an excellent starting point for reducing the likelihood that your house or apartment will be burglarized.

What can you do about it?

Criminals look for easy targets – where the risk of detection is slight and the profits are high. But some simple, common-sense crime prevention practices can make your home and property less attractive and less available to the criminal.

You can take steps to:
· Avoid some risks. (Removing some items to a safer location such as a bank.)
· Spread and manage some risks. (Taking steps to delay and deter the criminal as he heads for your possessions will make a difference! Careful selection of locks, dusk-to-dawn lights or lights on timers – it isn’t hard to reduce your vulnerability.)

When you cause the criminal to take more time, make more noise, and be more visible as he acts, you may prevent completion of a crime and perhaps even discourage a contemplated attempt. Here are some steps to lessen the changes of becoming the target of a theft or burglary:
1. Keep expensive machinery and all vehicles near the residence in a visible, well-lighted area. Lock all vehicles.
2. Keep valuable tools, chemicals, seed and portable machinery in sturdy outbuildings or bins within the barn and secure them with strong doors and deadbolt locks or with case-hardened steel padlocks and hasps.
3. Maintain all fences in good repair and lock gates.
4. Install an emergency generator and wide-area emergency lighting system to thwart undetected intrusion.
5. Avoid a regular schedule. Come and go on your property at varying times and avoid predictable absences in case someone is observing your habits.
6. Place large-size Neighborhood Watch warning signs at strategic locations around your neighborhood where they are most apt to be seen by a potential criminal.
7. Keep all doors closed and locked when not in use. Close your garage doors when leaving. Don’t advertise your absence.
8. Make your home look and sound occupied. When you’re away, leave your draperies and shades in their normal position. At night, leave on an inner light and use automatic timers to turn lights and radios on and off again a few hours later.
9. Install deadbolt locks on the doors of your residence. Secure sliding glass doors with a “Charley bar” and install good locks on all windows.
10. Don’t leave keys to your house or buildings hidden outside and don’t leave messages for visitors tacked on your door.
11. Report repeated wrong number telephone calls or silent calls to your law enforcement agency.

If you are the victim of a burglary, it is important that you know the serial numbers of the items stolen. Without the positive identification made possible by a serial number, or a unique number which you may engrave or mark on your property, you may not be able to prove you are the rightful owner if the item is recovered from the thief. Recovered property that cannot be positively identified as being stolen cannot be used as evidence against the thief.

Take a few minutes and record the description, serial numbers and value of those items which are most likely to be stolen. If you have valuable jewelry, silver, antiques or art objects, take color photographs and note any marks, blemishes or features that make it uniquely identifiable. Keep your property record form and photographs with your insurance papers or in another safe place.

After you complete your inventory, you will realize how much you have to lose in a burglary.

Get involved in Neighborhood Watch

This community crime prevention program can dramatically lower the burglary and break-in rate in your area. Active Neighborhood Watch programs encourage cooperation in crime prevention and discourage the criminal interested in your possessions.

Successful Neighborhood Watch groups advise the following:
?˜ Watch over your neighbors’ property and report suspicious persons, vehicles or activity promptly to your law enforcement agency.
?˜ Notify neighbors when you will be away, but don’t advertise your absence to the entire community. Know when your neighbors are away.
?˜ Develop a system for recognizing legitimate neighborhood vehicles.
?˜ Establish a block parent or McGruff House program where feasible to provide a safe refuge for neighborhood children in distress.
?˜ Post large Neighborhood Watch signs in a visible location at the entrances to your community and strategically place smaller signs on fences and homes.