Neighborhood Awareness and Crime Prevention Directives
1) Join your neighborhood association so you can quickly and easily share information about what is going on in your immediate community.
2) Actively engage your neighbors. Let them know when you will be out of town and when you are having work done on your house. This way your neighbor will be able to spot any suspicious “going-ons” or activity that is out of the ordinary. Likewise, take an active interest in your neighbors’ lives and daily activities. We all should know each other better and establishing neighborly relations makes each of us capable of spotting unusual activity when it occurs.
3) If you don’t have a home alarm system, purchase one. Place the alarm sign prominently in your yard.
4) Turn your alarm system on anytime you leave your house, when you are in your home, and even when you are in your yard.
5) Keep your doors locked at all times, even when you are in your home or yard.
6) Pad lock or bolt all gate, shed or garage access.
7) Install motion detectors or flood lights at all corners of your home. Keep your flood lights on all evening.
8) Never leave any valuables in your car whatsoever. Keep your car doors locked.
9) If appropriate for your life-style, consider getting a dog.
10) Establish a neighborhood directory so that you can quickly contact neighbors on any given street.
11) Carry your cell phone with you when you walk in your neighborhood and when you are driving in your car so that you may promptly report any suspicious activity. Do not hesitate to call 911 and ask that a patrol car in the area ride by when you see unusual or suspicious behavior. If the police are in the area, they are happy to drive by. You may also call a neighbor down the road so that they may be on the look out for the activity you spotted.
12) When you are running errands during the day or coming home at night after being out for the evening, take an extra drive around your neighborhood. Observe what is going on. If you are out at lunch during the work day and can swing by your house, do so and then drive an extra lap or two around your neighborhood. Report any suspicious behavior to 911. You can also alert other neighbors in the area.
13) When you see strangers in your neighborhood be sure to greet them directly with a strong “Hello, good afternoon”, or “Hello, how are you”, etc. Look them directly in the eye. Studies show that criminal activity is deterred when the potential culprits are addressed and acknowledged. It let’s them know that you are aware of their presence and that you have noted them and the time and place you encountered them. If the passer-by will not look you in the eye, it is reason to give the situation further attention, by, for instance, alerting your neighbors of the stranger’s presence.
14) If you see a vehicle circling through your neighborhood in a suspicious or unusual manner, note the make, model, and color of the vehicle, the license plate and the time and date your saw it. If the individual(s) are on bike or foot, note the type, style or color of the bike, as well as any clothing or physical descriptions. Write it down and keep it where you can find it. If you learn later that an incident occurred at that time and in that area, you can share the information with the police.
15) Make sure that you transmit information about events or incidents in your neighborhood in a very factual manner. Seek the best, most accurate source of information available (from the police or your neighborhood association), before repeating it to others. Relay the information you obtain in person so that any potential misunderstanding or misinterpretation can be remedied on the spot. Exaggerated details of an event can mislead the police and hinder their investigation, even when the exaggerations are in good faith and well meaning; they also can cause neighbors to let their guard down if they come to believe the reports they receive are not accurate (“cry wolf syndrome”).
16) Neighborhood associations should consider setting up a street captain or phone tree means of communication of important information. Flyers handed out door-to-door has been an effective means of communication for many neighborhoods.
17) Email is an efficient way to communicate, but can lead to unintended misinformation being disseminated. For the most effective neighborhood email communication, your neighborhood association should establish one person to be the “keeper” of the email list. That individual should be charged with getting the very best, most accurate, non-exaggerated and non-inflamed report of any incident or concern. Those facts should be dryly and directly reported in an email and proof read by at least one other officer or representative of the association to assure accuracy and absence of personal editorializing that may affect law enforcement efforts. The so-called “keeper” of the list should address the email to his or her self or one other representative of the neighborhood association. All other emails should be in the “blind copied” line or in the “bcc” line of the email. This prevents the publication of personal email addresses to others and prevents the “reply all” effect of unreviewed and unconfirmed information in any response to the email. All participants of the email list should understand that they are not to forward the emails beyond their group as there is no way to control inaccurate information from becoming added to the email once it has been forwarded.
Compiled by MidTown, Inc.
What is suspicious?
Anything that seems even slightly "out of place" or that is occurring at an unusual time of day could be criminal activity. Watch for the following things:
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Door-to-door salemen must have solicitor's permits. If they do not, call the police to report them. Watch them as they go door-to-door and alert your neighbors.
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Children or teenagers loitering in your neighborhood during school hours should be reported to the police.
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Strangers going door-to-door looking for odd jobs or offering "free estimates" or representing themselves to be servicemen or employees of the city, state or federal government should be addressed with great suspicion. Ask to for identification, or ask them to "move on". Alert your neighbors that such an individual is in the neighborhood. Call 911 and ask that a car drive through the neighborhood.
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Contact you neighbors if you see someone loading furniture or electronics into a vehicle. If the activity is not explained, contact the police. Never confront a potential criminal suspect.
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Strangers knocking on your door asking for the name of a person that does not live there, may well be casing your house. Alert the police when this happens.
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Vehicles in the neighborhood that don't belong to a resident that are "cruising" or driving slowly should be noted, description record and reported to other neighbors.
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Vehicles in your neighbor’s driveway while they are out of town should be reported immediately.
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Respond to dogs barking. Try to determine the source of any dogs agitation.
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Report broken glass, open windows, doors or gates in homes where no one is home.
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Anyone removing accessories, license plates or gasoline from a car should be reported to the police..
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A stranger peering into a vehicle or testing the door handle should be reported to the police.
Compiled by MidTown, Inc. from "A Guide to Neighborhood Crime Prevention", Columbus Police Department , Crime Prevention Unit (706) 653-3173
