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Neighborhood Watch
Paulding County Sheriff's Office Neighborhood Watch
Thank you for your vested interest in the Neighborhood Watch program. The National Neighborhood Watch Programwas created by the National Sheriff’s Association in 1972. It was created to unite law enforcement agencies, private organizations, and individual citizens in an effort to reduce residential crime.
Preventing Crime
You can ask anyone that has been a victim of a burglary, the shock and helpless anger that comes with discovering that a burglar has entered their home will not easily be forgotten. The damage may be minimal or major. However, one fact remains: another statistic has been added to the growing list of burglarized homes. The questions that we are beginning to ask homeowners are, “Is your neighborhood ready to resist crime, or is it a target for burglars?” The choice is up to you!
According to the statistics, chances are very good that a home burglarized today is located in a neighborhood where one vital prevention tool is missing: an active Neighborhood Watch group. This is a community-based organization of citizens working closely with law enforcement to prevent burglary and other crime. A work plan emerged from the creation of the National Neighborhood Watch program for use by sheriffs, police, and citizens for putting together localized neighborhood watch programs, hence the Paulding County Sheriff’s Office Neighborhood Watch program. Through this program, local citizens work to 1) make their homes and families less inviting targets for crime, and 2) cooperate with law enforcement through block and neighborhood groups to control crime throughout the community.
Sharing Responsibility
We recognize that crime prevention, particularly crime involving residential neighborhoods, is a responsibility that must be shared equally by law enforcement and private citizens. The impact on crime prevention by law enforcement alone is minimal when compared with the power of private citizens working together with law enforcement. When citizens take proactive steps to secure their own property and neighbors learn how to report suspicious activity around their homes, burglary and related offenses decrease dramatically.
According to the National Sheriff’s Association, there have been dramatic decreases in burglary and related offenses throughout the United States in communities with active Neighborhood Watch programs. “Neighborhood Watch is now the most successful anticrime initiative in the country and the most effective and least expensive tool for restoring the safe, pleasant environment we all want for our families!”