The first rule of every watch program: Do not intervene
The killing of Trayvon Martin by an armed neighborhood watch captain has called into question the role of neighborhood watch participants. There is no question that a neighborhood watch program can have a positive impact on the community. However, experts make it clear that there are some essential rules to an effective program as reported by The Associated Press.
"First thing: You do not engage. Once you see anything, a suspicious
activity, you call the number that the police department has given you," said
Chris Tutko, director of the Neighborhood Watch program at the National
Sheriffs' Association, which launched the neighborhood watch concept 40 years
ago as a response to rising crime.
Tutko said it's highly unusual, and highly discouraged, for a neighborhood
watch to be armed.
"You do not carry a weapon during neighborhood watch," he told the AP. "If you carry a weapon, you're going to pull it."
Tens of thousands of watches have been formed across the United States over the decades. Some patrol gritty urban neighborhoods where volunteers walk a beat; others monitor sparsely populated areas with houses that are miles apart.
Regardless of location, the message from law enforcement is always the same: Do not intervene. Do not try to be a hero. Leave the crime-fighting to the police.
"We don't want to see somebody taking the law into their own hands," Philadelphia police Sgt. Dennis Rosenbaum told the AP.
Violent incidents involving neighborhood watch volunteers are rare but not unheard of. In 2009, two armed neighborhood watch volunteers in Bluffdale, Utah, got into a dispute; one took out his gun and shot the other, paralyzing him.
Background checks can weed out convicted felons and other people who obviously don't belong in neighborhood watches. After that, police departments that work with watch groups, as well as the organizations themselves, have to remain vigilant to make sure that volunteers are doing what they're supposed to.
"It was designed to be an extra set of eyes for the police because they cannot be everywhere all the time. But actually acting on it with vigilantism is completely askew to what the idea of neighborhood watch is," Kenneth J. Novak, a criminal justice professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City who has studied community policing and neighborhood watches, told the AP.
Volunteers should resist the urge to intervene, Tutko said, even if they happen to see a crime in progress, because they lack training and may become victims themselves. He tells trainees that "you do what you can, when you can, as much as you can, but if you cross the line, everybody loses."
Scholars say that while watch groups primarily act as deterrents and feed information to the police, they may provide more intangible benefits, too, like improving neighborhood cohesion and giving residents a sense of security.
The authors of a 2008 Justice Department review concluded there was "some evidence that Neighborhood Watch can be effective in reducing crime," but said that while some programs work as intended, others work less well or not at all, reported the AP.
To read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57402412/experts-neighborhood-watches-shouldnt-be-armed/
"You do not carry a weapon during neighborhood watch," he told the AP. "If you carry a weapon, you're going to pull it."
Tens of thousands of watches have been formed across the United States over the decades. Some patrol gritty urban neighborhoods where volunteers walk a beat; others monitor sparsely populated areas with houses that are miles apart.
Regardless of location, the message from law enforcement is always the same: Do not intervene. Do not try to be a hero. Leave the crime-fighting to the police.
"We don't want to see somebody taking the law into their own hands," Philadelphia police Sgt. Dennis Rosenbaum told the AP.
Violent incidents involving neighborhood watch volunteers are rare but not unheard of. In 2009, two armed neighborhood watch volunteers in Bluffdale, Utah, got into a dispute; one took out his gun and shot the other, paralyzing him.
Background checks can weed out convicted felons and other people who obviously don't belong in neighborhood watches. After that, police departments that work with watch groups, as well as the organizations themselves, have to remain vigilant to make sure that volunteers are doing what they're supposed to.
"It was designed to be an extra set of eyes for the police because they cannot be everywhere all the time. But actually acting on it with vigilantism is completely askew to what the idea of neighborhood watch is," Kenneth J. Novak, a criminal justice professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City who has studied community policing and neighborhood watches, told the AP.
Volunteers should resist the urge to intervene, Tutko said, even if they happen to see a crime in progress, because they lack training and may become victims themselves. He tells trainees that "you do what you can, when you can, as much as you can, but if you cross the line, everybody loses."
Scholars say that while watch groups primarily act as deterrents and feed information to the police, they may provide more intangible benefits, too, like improving neighborhood cohesion and giving residents a sense of security.
The authors of a 2008 Justice Department review concluded there was "some evidence that Neighborhood Watch can be effective in reducing crime," but said that while some programs work as intended, others work less well or not at all, reported the AP.
To read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57402412/experts-neighborhood-watches-shouldnt-be-armed/
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