neghborhood watch ideas ?

[THE DARK KNIGHT]

Um, you're going overboard. When you start talking to people about logbooks and "command centers" and organized patrols, you are going to see one of two expressions: Either their eyes will glaze over because they don't want to make that much effort (or any at all), or they will step back with a wary expression on their face because you just convinced them that you are "that paranoid guy who thinks he runs the neighborhood."

Exactly, if my neighbor approached me and told me about the command center and my patrol hours, well, let's just say I'll be ignoring that weirdo from now on.

 

[mcdonl]

PLEASE DON'T MISREAD MY COMMENTS AS THE OP's.... I AM NOT LOOKING TO SETUP A NEIGHBORHOOD SWAT TEAM....

woody....

I remember that thread. It would be a pretty unlikely thing that a confrontation would happen... first of all, we would be in our cars. Second all we would do was log suspicious activity and call dispatch. So, a confrontation would have to mean we are approached in our vehicle and could not get away, and I do not see how that could even happen... but, as we all know anything is possible. So, lets say we see some kids... park a safe distance and note the number of kids, description and what they are doing while calling it in to the sheriff's dispatch... lets say that they see us doing that and pull a gun on us while approaching faster then we can retreat and we fired back... that is the type of scenario I am talking about. If something that far fetched were to happen, while doing a neighborhood watch would we have an even further uphill battle then your run-of-the-mill justified shooting... if there is such a thing.

The way our current sheriff patrol is handicapped, it takes a credible complaint to get the on-call supervisor paged and dispatched. Our hopes are that by including the department from day one and letting them train us on what to do and not to do that we will be looked upon as credible when we call. We just want to be able to feel safe at night and we want the kids and bad guys to know that even though the local LEO's are not budgeted to patrol our area at night that we, the citizens are.

 

[Jeff White]

Does being out on a NW patrol shed a different light on my CCW?

If you follow the neighborhood watch guidelines and don't make contact with anyone, but just report what you see, your CCW is irrelevant. If you are out making contact with individuals, detaining them, questioning them, then your CCW figures into things and you might be crossing the line. Remember the laws may give you the same authority to make an arrest as a peace officer in certain circumstances, but it's all of the power with none of the civil tort protection.

 

[easyg]

I'm actually kinda against an established "neighborhood watch".
The very notion of patrol logs of your neighbor's activities and surveillance cameras is just a bit too Orwellian for me.

I do think that it's good to exchange phone numbers with your immediate neighbors (directly beside you, behind you, or across from you).
But that's as far as I go toward a "neighborhood watch".

 

[mcdonl]

Thanks Jeff. To be perfectly honest, if my suspicions are correct and it is kids... the pretty blue signs at the entrances to the neighborhood and the first sighting of a patrol at night will send them down the road.

 

[mcdonl]

easyg, I have never been for or against one until I found both of my vehicles rifled through along with my neighbors (Whom are all friendly and good people.....) when you do not have the immediate protection of law enforcement I think that it is a good thing. And if someone does not want to participate, it has no bearing on how I would feel about them.

But, I also coach youth sports, volunteer fireman, etc... so I have some sort of dysfunction that makes me care about my community and the people in it.

 

[woodybrighton2]

thought the post was worth pointing out what can go wrong.
been involved in Uk neighbourhood watch schemes.
Got some bizarrie grief from an "anarchist group class war" but this is brighton
we have largest number of apple mac users per head in europe and the largest number of nutters
One of the class war anarchists ran into a cabbie words were exchanged and he ended up on the floor. Then phoned the police who turned up promptly arrested the complainer for outstanding warrants madness.
There beef was we were doing the cops job for them and the cops are all facists. they did put up some stickers this is a working class area burgulars don't steal from you own class

 

[mcdonl]

So last night I was handing out flyers to neighbors just indicating an email address so we could get a feel of who is interested and invite the LEO's to come and meet with us. A lot of people were interested. Met one guy, who did this in his neighborhood in LA County where he used to live, and withing one month the shootings, other crimes and even an illegal motorcycle chop shop that was operating in the neighborhood was shut down. He seemed very confident that bored teens who know the PD is 30 minutes away will be easy to discourage.

PS - I did not do so wearing my shoot me first pants and 5.11 vest with dark sunglasses OC or drop holster on my leg