Neighborhood Watch
Form a Neighborhood Watch group in your community, and learn from deputy sheriffs how to observe and report suspicious persons and potential criminal activity. Make your neighborhood a hard target for criminals.
Neighborhood Watch is a FREE program provided by the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office. This program is an opportunity to promote mutual understanding between citizens and law enforcement.
Join our fight against crime by starting or joining a Neighborhood Watch program. You are the extra eyes and ears of law enforcement. We will teach you how to observe and report suspicious activity. Through our mutual communication, we can make your community a better and safer place to live.
A Neighborhood Watch group requires a minimum of three volunteers to oversee your group:
- Chairperson
- Co-Chairperson
- Communication Leader
The best crime prevention device is a good neighborhood. The security steps you and your neighbors take as a group are just as important as the things you do individually.
The Neighborhood Watch program operates on the concept that effective crime prevention requires cooperation with law enforcement. Neighborhood Watch is “neighbors looking out for the welfare of their neighbors.” It is a coalition of citizens who are concerned about the neighborhood where they live and are willing to become involved in the betterment of their community.
It is only by working together that we can truly be effective in our fight against crime. We in law enforcement can do a lot to prevent crime, both through intense patrol efforts and educational programs. However, all this can be ineffectual if you do not do your part to deny the criminal the opportunity to commit a crime.
It takes three ingredients to make a crime: desire, ability, and opportunity. Take away any ingredient and the recipe will fail; there will be no crime. Properly locked doors, neighborhood awareness, reporting suspicious persons or activity, and identifying your valuables, all deprive the would-be criminal of an easy target.
Please call the Crime Prevention & Community Awareness Unit with the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office – (727) 582-2222 to learn more about starting your own Neighborhood Watch group.
Pinellas County Crime Viewer
You can view crime reports from your neighborhood at any time AND even receive regular updates via email by using the Pinellas County Crime Viewer.
