Whether you live in a house or an apartment, whether you rent or own, you can help prevent crime in your neighbourhood by setting up a crime watch with your neighbours. A Crime Watch group does not cost anything, and can substantially increase your safety and your comfort level in your surroundings, because criminals will be aware of the crime watch and will decide to move to easier targets. Most criminals are opportunists and will choose the easiest target available.

The first thing to do is to set up a liaison with the local police department, and make sure that you have a contact person. The police are usually happy to send someone to talk to a group of neighbours who want to set up a crime watch group and will tell you more about what is involved.

The second task is to set up a rotation of people who will take responsibility for their section of the neighbourhood, and it is fine even to have people who are in and out a lot. People who walk their dogs regularly are ideal. Then you will need a captain and a block captain for each block. The block captain receives reports of suspicious activity, and the block captain then calls the police and reports it to the captain, who keeps a log of all the reports.

Once you have a certain number of people participating, you will be able to get signs to post in your neighbourhood, announcing that there is an active crime watch group in your area, and you should see the incidence of crime start decreasing fast.