In Meridian Township we believe in community policing; so much that everything thing we do revolves around it. One of the linchpins of community policing is the Neighborhood Watch. Neighborhood Watch is a partnership between a group of people and their police department in an effort to battle crime in their neighborhood. The Neighborhood Watch program will make you aware of the steps you can take to make your home more secure against crime and how you can help us be a more effective police agency. Setting up a Neighborhood Watch is a logical first step for any neighborhood organizing against crime; it requires minimal effort and gets people talking to and caring about one another.
Neighborhood Watch groups have the following structure:
Neighborhood Watch Coordinator:
This person is the liason with our department and helps organize the program. They recruit the Block Captains and develop the telephone tree and initiate its use.
Block Captain:
These people canvass their area of responsibility and explain the Neighborhood Watch program to the residents. They obtain the contact information for those that wish to be involved. They also help develop and initiate the telephone tree.
Telephone Tree:
This is simply a list of the contact information of the members of the watch program in your neighborhood.
MTPD will provide your Watch group with Neighborhood Watch signs and stickers for your neighborhood. We will also assign an officer to your neighborhood. You can expect regular contacts both in person and by telephone or email from your officer keeping you up to date on crime trends and checking to make sure there are no quality of life issues going on.
Communication:
The two way communication between the Neighborhood Watch groups and our police department is essential to our success as partners in the battle against crime. This is why MTPD has recently started using Facebook, Twitter, Nixle and this blog so that we can better communicate with those we serve.
