Neighborhood Watch

Nextdoor.com is a virtual neighborhood watch where you can share information with your neighbors. Click the link below to join.

Join a Neighborhood Watch!

Neighborhood Watch, Block Watch, Town Watch, Crime Watch - whatever the name, it's one of the most effective and least expensive ways to prevent crime and reduce fear.

Neighborhood Watch fights the isolation that crime both creates and feeds upon. It forges a bond among area residents, helps reduce burglaries and robberies, and improves relations between the police and the community they serve.

Purchase Neighborhood Watch Gear!

The ABCs of Organizing a Neighborhood Watch

Any community resident can join - young and old, single and married, renter and home owner.
A few concerned residents, a community organization, or a law enforcement agency can spearhead the effort to organize a watch.
Members learn how to make their own homes more secure, watch out for each other and the neighborhood, and report activities that raise their suspicions to the police.
You can form a watch group around any geopgraphical unit: a block, apartment, park, business area, public housing complex, office, or marina.
Watch Groups are NOT VIGILANTES. They are extra eyes and ears for reporting crime and helping neighbors. Neighborhood Watch helps build pride and serves as a springboard for efforts that address community concerns such as recreation for youth, child care, and affordable housing.

Getting Organized

What to do after you decide to form a Neighborhood Watch...

Contact the Eureka Police Department Crime Prevention Unit at (707) 441-4373. You will receive help in training members in home security and reporting skills and information on local crime patterns.
Select a COORDINATOR and A BLOCK CAPTAIN who are responsible for:
Organizing meetings and relaying information to members.
Recruit members, keep up to date on new residents and making special efforts to involve the elderly, working parents, and young people.
Working with local government or law enforcement to put up Neighborhood Watch signs, usually after at least 50% of all households in the neighborhood are enrolled.

What Do Watch Members Look For?

Someone screaming or shouting for help.
Someone looking into building windows or parked cars.
Unusual noises.
Property being taken out of houses or businesses where no one is home or the business is closed.
Cars, vans, or trucks moving slowly with no apparent destination, or without lights at night.
Anyone being forced into a vehicle.
A stranger sitting in a car or stopping to talk to a child.
Abandoned cars.

How Do Neighborhood Watch Members Report an Incident?

The dispatcher will guide you through the process of reporting an incident. They will ask you all of the pertinent questions. When you are witnessing an incident, pay attention to the following things:

Where the emergency/event is occurring
What is happening
Who is involved
When it occurred
Why it happened
Information relating to weapons.
Decriptions of involved parties (Race, Age, Height, Weight, Hair, Eyes, Clothing

If there are vehicles involved, please pay attention to the following:

Color
Approximate Year
Make
Model
Body Style (2 door, 4 door, SUV, pickup, etc)
License plate number and state