Neighborhood Watch mega-meeting
August 19 at Community Center

There will be a one-stop mega-meeting for all interested in Neighborhood Watch and public safety at the Community Center on August 19.

Sponsored by the Santa Paula Police Department, the meeting will be held at the center starting at 7 p.m. 

“For those of you who have asked how you can get involved with your police department, this is your chance,” said Police Chief Steve McLean who put out a call for those interested in the Neighborhood Watch program over Facebook. 

McLean was pleased with the response, but instead of having individual meetings in specific areas where only the neighbors are invited he decided on the larger audience route.

“I think we’ll have to have more than one,” said McLean. “My experience is to have one for the east section of the city and one for the west side of town.”

Neighborhood Watch is one of the most effective and least costly ways to prevent crime and reduce fear in a neighborhood. Neighborhood Watch Programs fight the isolation and separation that crime creates and feeds upon bonds among area residents and businesses, helps reduce burglaries and robberies, and improves relations between police and the communities they serve.

Law enforcement agencies throughout the nation encourage NW as a crime prevention strategy that enlists the active participation of residents by organizing the community into a cohesive unit working toward the goal of building a safer, crime-free neighborhood. 

Each NW has at least one Block Captain that acts as a liaison between neighborhood residents and police and who might be called upon to organize a meeting on occasion including those that feature public safety personnel.

Members of NW learn how to make their homes more secure, watch out for each other and the neighborhood, and report activities that raise their suspicions to the police department. Watch groups are not vigilantes but rather extra eyes and ears for reporting suspicious activity or crime as well as helping neighbors.

Neighborhood Watch members pay attention and notify police if someone is screaming or shouting for help, hear unusual noises, observe people in the neighborhood that don’t seem to have a reason for being there including a stranger sitting in a car or stopping to talk to a child.