Neighbourhood Watch
Neighbourhood Watch (also known as Block Watch and Community Watch) is a program designed to reduce the threat of crime to neighbours and property. This program encourages all residents to be alert to suspicious persons or vehicles and to notify each other quickly via web-based tools. The more people that are members, the more neighbours there are looking out for each other.
Neighbourhood Protect
Neighbourhood Protect is a free web-based administration and communication tool for neighbourhood watches in Canada. All posts on the website are
anonymous.
Unlike some social media groups that are closed and prevent the sharing of information amongst other neighbourhoods and police, Neighbourhood Protect expands on the idea of neighbourhood watch by joining multiple neighbourhood watches together through one central database. Just as it is beneficial for neighbours to join a neighbourhood watch, it is also beneficial for individual neighbourhood watches to join together to form a larger regional watch since some criminals travel by bike or car and can affect more than one neighbourhood or city.
Neighbourhood Protect requires very little effort on the part of its members; just look out for each other`s property and report a possible crime and let your immediate neighbours know about your neighbourhood watch. There is no patrolling, big canvassing, time consuming meetings etc. This is to make your life safer and easier, not more complicated.
Neighbourhood Protect is recognized by many organizations as a leader in neighbourhood watch.
Functionality
No matter where you live, see what`s happening in your neighbourhood with crime data provided by your local police service. Neighbourhood Protect integrates
seamlessly with all police service crime maps regardless of which technology they use.
Neighbourhood Protect provides real-time crime information by:
- The above mentioned police crime maps
- Live Twitter/RSS feeds from your local police
- Instant email/text notifications from member postings
This website is a tool specific to supporting neighbourhood watch programs by:
For Residents:
- Empowers residents to be proactive about their neighbourhood safety
- Does not replace existing neighbourhood watches, merely automates them
- Post events of a criminal or suspicious incident
- Posts are anonymous - your name will not be displayed
- Upload photos of suspects or suspicious vehicles
- Simplified captain involvement:
- No large canvassing - referral system instead
- No member sheets to maintain - online sign-up form and database manage all administrative tasks
- Reduced need to screen/review posts - social/community posts not allowed, only crime/suspicious incidents posts permitted
- No need to phone/email members of new posts - website sends automated emails
- No need to notify police of posts - officers can also receive automated emails
- Meetings are optional - website manages all communication
- Accessable to everyone with a computer/smartphone
- Supports an infinite number of neighbourhoods
- The ability for neighbourhoods to share information across boundaries
- No closed groups preventing the sharing of crime information
- Structured in a way to minimize the possibility of using the website as a "soapbox" to rant
For Investigators:
- Link to any neighbourhood watch as a liaison
- Post messages to any neighbourhood
- Accessible to everyone with a computer/smartphone Over And Above Social Media
- Quick access to member contact information including who has cameras if follow-up is required
- Concept of a Dashboard for a quick overview of all registered neighbourhood watches including other regions
- Any new neighbourhood watches automatically appear in the Dashboard
- Receive email notifications of any monitored neighbourhood watch
- Post messages to the home page for all neighbourhoods and visitors to see - country wide
- Search/query tools for investigators not typically found in Facebook or other social media websites
- Easily see crime trends through advanced queries
- No closed groups preventing access to crime information
- No association to social media
Note: This is not your police service`s official crime reporting tool. To report a crime, you must always contact your police service directly through one of their official contacts such as 9-1-1, or their non-emergency phone# or if they have on-line reporting, on their website. Neighbourhood Protect is strictly a search tool that the police can optionally use to help in their investigations; there is no guarantee that they will use this website for every crime reported.
What Is Expected Of A Member?Every member:
- Refer neighbours. Tell about 5-6 of your neighbours. Optionally canvas if you like. You will need about 5-10 members to begin to have a successful watch.
- If something happens to your property or you observe a crime/suspicious activity, post it to the website to let your neighbours know and inform the police.
- If you receive a notification from another neighbour and you have security cameras, check your video and if something is found, tell the police and post that information on the website. If you check your video and find nothing and reside on the same street as the reported crime, post that nothing was seen on video near you.
- Just wait for something to happen. That`s it, fairly simple and easy.
- Periodically check the home page to see if there are any recent posts near your neighbourhood; check the All page for details.
- Periodically check the Maps page (if your police service has crime maps) to see if your police service is reporting any crimes near you.
- Check your cameras to see if there is anything suspicious related to the above; notify the police and post the image.
- If you recognize a vehicle or person reported on the website, notify the police service of where the crime occurred.
- Canvas some more neighbours to help grow your neighbourhood watch.
- If you have any suggestions on improving the website feel free to contact the administrator.