What is Neighborhood Watch?

Neighborhood Watch focuses on informing the community how to discourage, deter and prevent crimes such as burglary, auto theft, car break-ins, and personal crimes which often occur in or near homes. Issues such as vandalism, graffiti, drug dealing and gang activity are also addressed when applicable.?

The San Jose Police Department's Crime Prevention Unit has provided NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH presentations to neighborhood groups for nearly 25 years. Although crime trends have changed since the 1970's, the basic principle behind NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH remains the same; to bring communities together with the police to achieve the common goal of preventing crime.?

How Can a Meeting be Arranged?

To request a NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH, call Crime Prevention at (408) 277-4133. The Crime Prevention Specialist who represents the area of San Jose in which you live will work with you to schedule the meeting date (usually at least four to six weeks notice is required). Invitation notices will be sent to you to distribute to your neighbors.

NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH meetings are held on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday evenings AT 6:30 P.M. and last approximately 2 hours. At least TEN homes must be represented in order for the meeting to take place. Most meetings are held in your home or at a neighborhood facility.

What Happens at the Meeting?

NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH is an opportunity to meet face-to-face with representatives of your police department to discuss and work to solve problems in your community, or to keep the problems from starting in the first place!

Through this positive, pro-active program, you will learn facts about:

• Police districts and beats
• Duties of beat officers
• Crime trends in your area
• How to react to suspicious or criminal activity
• How San Jose's 9-1-1 system works
• Recommended security measures such as...
  • Types of locks
  • Lighting
  • Alarms
  • Operation Identification
  • and MUCH more!

Only residents attending the meeting will be entitled to receive a NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH window sign and other materials distributed at the meeting.

If 80%-100% of the homes on your block are represented at the meeting, metal NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH signs will be installed on the streetlight poles on your block.

Could This Happen to You?

Upon leaving his home one morning, a San Jose man observed a young man sitting in a car across the street. Although he felt suspicious about the stranger, he went on to work. When he returned home that evening he found his home ransacked and burglarized.

A San Jose woman went to the grocery store one afternoon. She left her sliding patio door slightly open. “I was only gone fifteen minutes”, she stated, after returning home to find more than $2,000 worth of her property missing.

One morning, a young man convinced a 79 year-old woman to allow him into her home to allegedly give her a written estimate on yard work. Once in the house, the man raped the woman.

Several neighbors on a San Jose street noticed that new residents of a nearby home had many, frequent “guests” visiting for a short period of time. There had also been recent auto and home burglaries in the area. Although they suspected drug dealing, they were not sure what to do because the could not prove anything.

These are just a few examples of real-life situations in San Jose which result in the establishment of NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH programs. Don't wait to become a victim... get involved now!

Do You Know...

• That most residential burglaries occur during DAYLIGHT HOURS?
• How burglars can tell at a glance which homes are EASY TARGETS?
• What to do if you see a suspicious person on YOUR STREET?
• Why personal property which has been engraved with a California driver's license number is LESS LIKELY to be stolen?
• That crime rates in NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH communities can be greatly reduced through the simple, common sense measures you can learn by attending a Neighborhood Watch meeting?

The SAN JOSE POLICE DEPARTMENT is anxious to work with you to “TAKE A BITE OUT OF CRIME?”

It begins with a meeting...
...and ends with a safer neighborhood