Watch out for neighbourhood watch

Do you recall how, in 2003, the Santa Venera council relaunched the neighbourhood watch scheme after it had been tried out years before? The result was that crime in the area went down by a third. In 2017, a neighbourhood watch pilot project was tried out by the NGO Victim Support Malta with a good measure of success. In August 2023, then, a new local neighbourhood watch programme was launched in Marsa, which allowed residents to have more direct involvement in maintaining order in their communities with assistance and cooperation from the community police.

Due to increasing crime and disorder in the Marsa area, a strategic plan was formulated in the effort of bridging a collaborative relationship between the police and the community and reducing crime, fear of crime, and social disorder within the community.

Neighbourhood watch can be one of the most executed community policing programmes for reducing crime and disorder in a community. It is directed by community police officers and relies profoundly on the assistance of community members. It is a crime-prevention programme that persuades residents to act as the eyes and ears of law enforcement in preventing crime within their community. In other words, it is a responsibility that must embody teamwork and be shared equally by law enforcement and private citizens.

A limitation of the neighbourhood watch programme is that areas that tend to have a very high rate of criminal activity create problems in establishing and maintaining such programme due to intimidation and fear of reprisal from criminal residents. In spite of the difficulties, neighbourhood watch can still be very effective in fighting crime, acting as a deterrent and improving the quality of life of residents.

Neighbourhood watch might have a number of downsides, though. At the outset, neighbourhood watches need plenty of organisational efforts. The juice may not be worth the squeeze unless the people involved know what they are doing. Neighbourhood watch can be time-consuming, and one cannot underestimate the implied danger for the members of the neighbourhood watch. Members of neighbourhood watch groups should receive clear instructions and may need some self-defence skills.

Neighbourhood watches don’t have the same powers as police officers, and members may become overwhelmed in an emergency. People may overreact in certain situations and come into conflict with official police operations.

Law enforcement, with an emphasis on crime prevention, is the main objective of any police service. It is widely recognised that without the assistance of the people themselves, combating crime cannot succeed. Participation in the neighbourhood watch programme requires the desire to contribute to the creation of safer living conditions by reducing fear and preventing violence.

Success or failure of the programme depends on those involved in its implementation, the level of professionalism and innovation in the work of the police, as well as the desire of the community members to contribute to the common goal. The key problem is to awaken the public consciousness, namely, through neighbourhood supervision and control that would promote timely provision of information to the police.

The public should assist the police in collecting data on drunkenness, drug addiction, potential weapons use, possession of prohibited items, vandalism, public littering, car thieves, extremists and minors involved in antisocial activities.

The formal side of participation in the programme is minimal, and the main goal is to promote the desire to create safer conditions of life. It is thus necessary to develop and implement a range of strategies. Many people prefer not to participate in such a programme due to both individual and neighbour-related factors. Yet, people with positive intentions tend to participate in the programme as well as those civic-minded individuals living in criminal areas.

It is important, then, to identify any other factors related to the extent of participation in the programme and address the existing challenges. There might be a problem of public mistrust towards the police that is caused by their lack of openness regarding their initiatives. To counteract it, there must be an ongoing need to demonstrate to community members the integrity of the police and society.

To ensure that the activities of the neighbourhood watch programme are not carried out by trial and error, they should be based on the principle of empiricism. At present, criminological science has accumulated a huge amount of knowledge in this field and developed scientific recommendations and techniques for the prevention of certain types of crime. The principle of the empirical approach should make it possible to take into account the prevailing tendencies in the development of crime and the changes in its state, structure and dynamics. If community members are aware of this information, it is more likely that their watch will be effective.

The key activity of the so-called neighbours is to bring any information of a criminal nature to the attention of the police. Sometimes this activity involves the creation of cluster groups to patrol the territory. In this connection, the members of communities can independently determine who will coordinate their actions, who will contact the police and who will receive general information on the state of local crime and present it to the people.

Stopping crime also requires a strong community effort.