How to Set up a Neighbourhood Watch, Maldon District

An introduction by Linda, Maldon Neighbourhood Watch.

Why join Neighbourhood Watch?
Neighbourhood Watch is the biggest and most successful crime prevention initiative. Residents get together and work with each other and with local police to:
• help police to get a picture of local crime
• identify local crime problems, for instance vandalism, antisocial behaviour (ASB)
• take action to tackle problems, for instance involve local authority, street watch activities
• prevent crime from happening, by increasing and promoting security

As a member of Neighbourhood Watch, all you have to do is keep your eyes and ears open, and report anything unusual, as well as checking to make sure neighbours are OK, for instance, if post or milk is not taken in. In return you will be kept up-to-date with information about what is going on in your area, crime trends, scams, bogus callers etc and can also receive specialist advice on safety and security. Each street or area has a “co-ordinator” who keeps in touch with members within their patch, meeting other coordinators periodically to discuss issues and concerns in the wider community.

Neighbourhood Watch is an organisation independent of, but working in close conjunction with the police. It is community led, that’s you and me. It’s important that your residents understand the independent nature of Neighbourhood Watch. It’s also important that they understand the limits of our actions. It is a watch, a means of communicating anxieties and crime to the police, and for them to alert us to things they wish us to be aware of.

How Does Neighbourhood Watch Work?
A Watch is traditionally a street of say, up to 50 residences looked after by a coordinator. Traditionally people were kept in touch with events by a phone chain for emergencies, and a newsletter. However, with the advent of computers, email and websites, sending out information is much easier, so a Watch could even be just one home in isolation, or say, a couple of homes where one person has internet, and can keep their neighbours up to date. Much of the communication is by email nowadays because it’s cheap, fast, and effective (provided the email addresses are up to date.)

How a Watch works in practice at Street level depends very much on what the residents in that particular Watch want. Some want every last scrap of available information. Others prefer only important or urgent news.

The flow of information from Maldon Police and/or Maldon District Council Community Safety Officer works thus:-

The police will email the Coordinators whom they have email addresses for. This may be at Street level, or it may be to the Area Coordinator, who will forward the information on. When the Street coordinator receives the information, they will pass it on to their residents in the way the residents wish. This might be a newsletter, or it might, say, be a note thorough the door and a phone call if the information is urgent.

Much but not all this information may be on the Maldon District NHW blog, depending on whether I have time to update it, and on the sensitivity of the information.

http://gttothamlostfoundmissing.blogspot.com/ (Please don’t be puzzled by the odd address. I reused an old blog. I may set up a new one. And please, if there’s obvious spam, then don’t click on the links. I don’t always have time to delete the rubbish.)

Another good source of information is the Essex Police Website.

http://www.essex.police.uk/home.aspx

(Sometimes they change the address for this… if the page comes up as not found, Google it.)

The flow of non-urgent information to the police.
This is best done straight from coordinator to the Police Community Support Officer or Neighbourhood Specialist Officer, rather than via the Street Coordinator. Email or phone them on the local number or their mobile.

The other good way of passing non-urgent information on is via the Neighbourhood Action Panels. These are police-led forums held every eight weeks for each Neighbourhood Policing Team’s area. (See below for more on Neighbourhood Policing.)

Important. Because of the high levels of spam nowadays, please make sure you put Neighbourhood Watch or NHW in the subject line of any emails you send. I delete anything which does not have this, without opening it, and may block your address inadvertently. If you think I have blocked your address then pleased contact me by phone. Emails from me (Linda) should contain NHW in the subject line.

If you have volunteered to set up a Watch and be Street Coordinator
Thank you very much. All Watch Coordinators must register with their local police station, so please ensure Maldon Police know of your interest. Please will you visit the residents in the area you have volunteered to coordinate for.

1. Tell people in your street that you are setting up a Watch and see if they wish to be involved. There are Coordinator Registration forms attached to this document. If they are interested please get them to fill two in. (Or use carbon paper, or copy it.) If they permit, please allow Maldon District membership Secretary to have the duplicates so they are held on a database accessible by the Police and the Community Safety Development Officer.

2. This will help you set up a phone chain and email database.

3. Find out if they have any particular worries.

4. Find a friend or two to help you out with being a co-ordinator, so that the job is shared.

5. If the neighbouring streets aren’t covered, see if you can think of someone who might like to be a street co-ordinator for that street.

6. Coordinators are invited to meetings of Maldon Section NHW coordinators held bimonthly at St Cedd’s. This is a useful way of getting to know other coordinators and picking people’s brains about what you need to do.

Being a coordinator is really very simple, and it’s important that you adjust it to the way you feel it works best for you and your residents..

Neighbourhood Policing and Neighbourhood Watch.
Because of the use of the word “neighbourhood” it’s easy to get confused about neighbourhood Watch, Neighbourhood Policing, and the like. Neighbourhood policing is different from Neighbourhood Watch.

Neighbourhood Policing is a new term used to describe the way policing is structured nowadays. It was rolled out countrywide by 2008. Maldon District is divided into six “Neighbourhoods”:- Maldon (Town) Heybridge, Purleigh (which includes Wickham Bishops), Great Totham (Also known as Blackwater Villages North as it includes several villages), Southminster and Burnham. Each Neighbourhood has a Police Constable with special responsibilities for that neighbourhood; The Neighbourhood Specialist Officer (NSO). Sometimes the role is shared between two officers. Each Neighbourhood may also have a Police Community Support Officer (PCSO) or part share of a PCSO.

These people are your best link for non-urgent issues. Crime should always be reported to Maldon Police on the universal number 0300 333 4444

To find out more look at the Essex police web page for your area.
http://www.essex.police.uk/my_neighbourhood/maldon_district.aspx

Neighbourhood Watch can help with Neighbourhood Policing by acting as a conduit of information to and from the police.
Linda 21st February 2010

(With thanks to Chris Walker, erstwhile Watch Administrator Essex Police, whose welcome notes I have included in part in this updated welcome.)

Experimentation

I'm playing around with this to see if I can make it read from the top down

How to set up a Neighbourhood Watch

I thought I'd start this blog to help and encourage people to set up Watches across the Maldon District in Essex. Please bear with me while I write the contents. The problem I will have is making sure that I have all the content ready since blogs are read latest at the top (unless I can find a way to tuen it round)

If you want to start a Watch, please email me on linda@nw-gts.org.uk