KREOA cannot organize a neighborhood watch program in your area. It must come from within your neighborhood. The following material has been excerpted from the Butte County Crime Prevention Website.

Want to know the best crime prevention tool ever invented? A good neighbor! In fact, neighborhoods working together with law enforcement are some of the best crime-fighting teams around. We call it Neighborhood Watch.

What is Neighborhood Watch? Neighborhood Watch is a crime prevention program which enlists the active participation of residents in cooperation with law enforcement to reduce crime in their communities. The program involves the joint efforts of the sheriff's department and the community and designed to enhance neighborhood security, heighten the community's power of observation, and to encourage mutual assistance and concern among neighbors.

What's Involved? Neighbors getting to know each other and working together in a program of mutual assistance.

• Residents trained to recognize and report suspicious activities in their neighborhoods.

• Implementation of crime prevention techniques such as home security.

The Need for the Program In recent years, neighborhoods have experienced rapid change. The old, well-established neighborhood has been replaced by a highly transient, growing community where people seek more and more privacy. This lifestyle tends to promote unfamiliarity with neighbors and a corresponding lack

of concern. Unfortunately, this enhances the opportunity for the criminal element and increases the community's vulnerability to crime. This condition dictates the need for a crime prevention program which will enhance neighborhood security, heighten the community's power of observation and encourage mutual assistance and concern among neighbors.

Goals of Neighborhood Watch   The main objective of Neighborhood Watch is to reduce the incidence of crime by: "Increasing citizens' awareness of burglary and other neighborhood crime through a continuing information program." Training citizens in the means of better property security and assisting them in making their property more secure. "Developing a neighborhood action program where neighbors help watch each other's property and report suspicious persons and activities to law enforcement agencies." Encouraging all citizens to cooperate with law enforcement agencies in reporting crime.

How Do I Get Involved?

Contact your neighbors that would be good members of a neighborhood watch program. When you have a group assembled contact the Crime Prevention Coordinator at the Butte County Sheriff’s Office by telephone or email and explain you are interested in joining or starting a Neighborhood Watch Program. You can set up a visit with Paula Felipe, Coordinator, Phone: 530-538-7822