7
NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH SCHEME
2.7
The neighbourhood watch scheme involves a group of householders who get together to form small units of ten to 15 households in the same block or building. Each householder then agrees to help his neighbours by keeping an eye on their property when they are away, and by reporting to the Police any suspicious persons loitering around the area. They are also encouraged to mark valuable property and to keep lists of serial numbers of valuables in case the property is stolen. Participants in the scheme are not encouraged to take action against criminals other than by watching and reporting activity to the Police. This scheme will be set up by the local Police in each district. The recurring police commitment will be limited to visits to the units to check that all is well. Such schemes have been implemented in many other parts of the world and apart from their success in deterring crime, especially burglaries in residential buildings, they have fostered good neighbour relations and closer co-operation between the Police and the public.
Involvement of DFCCs
2.8
In order to attract maximum interest and action, members of the Fight Crime Committee were invited to brief individual District Fight Crime Committees (DFCCS), when attending their meetings, on the aims and advantages of the neighbourhood watch concept and the part they can play in encouraging residents to participate in selecting buildings for this purpose.
2.9
Thereafter, it is intended that individual DFCC members be invited to "adopt" a selected building in their area and to assist the District Police in encouraging residents to form neighbourhood watch units and to operate them properly.
Implementation of the scheme
2.10
Eighty residential blocks throughout the territory have been selected for the first phase of the scheme. The implementation of the scheme will start in October 1985 when the necessary pamphlets, posters and other publicity material become available. The scheme should be well under way by the end of 1985. The following publicity material will be produced
(a)
30,000 copies of a letter jointly signed by the Chief Secretary and the Commissioner of Police introducing the neighbourhood watch scheme;
(b) 3,000 neighbourhood watch folders;