Capt. Paul Chignell:Police Beat

Neighborhood Watches Key

The concept of a "neighborhood watch" is a powerful one for our San Francisco communities. San Francisco Safety Awareness for Everyone (SAFE), the parent group of neighborhood watches, has provided excellent oversight and training for hundreds of neighborhood watch leaders in the City. More and more folks are realizing that this free service assisting the development of neighborhood watches can be a key to preventing crime in our neighborhoods.

The idea of neighbors watching out for neighbors is not a new concept but it definitely works. The trite phrase that urban residents never know their neighbors is dispelled by strong neighborhood watches, complete with phone trees, good communication with the police and relationships with other city agencies.

Effective neighborhood watches anticipate crime and quality-of-life issues and utilize all of the various services to help solve problems in the community. They are quite knowledgeable about what works and what does not work and expect city agencies, in particular, to be partners to improve neighborhoods.

Here at the Taraval Police District we have more than 75 neighborhood watches operating in all areas of the district. In order to better enhance the relationship, we will soon be assigning a supervisory officer from the police station, a sergeant, to be the liaison to every neighborhood watch group that wants one. In this way, the neighborhood watch members have a point of contact at the police station for purposes of inquiry on any matter that needs to be addressed.

In addition, the sergeant can be the point person to attend neighborhood watch meetings and be available to assist in resolving problems that emerge in the neighborhood.

If you are interested in forming a neighborhood watch, or joining an existing one on your street, please contact San Francisco SAFE at 553-1984 or go to the Web site at www.sfsafe.org.

Capt. Paul Chignell is the commanding officer at the Taraval Station.