Some people believe that a small town is a safe place to live. The crime rate in a small town is low because everyone knows everyone. If someone does something wrong everybody knows it. A criminal cannot operate with everyone watching. The neighborhood watch group makes their neighborhood their small town.
Any community resident can join-young and old, single and married, renter and home owner.
A few concerned residents or a community organization can spearhead the effort to organize a Watch. Members learn how to make their homes more secure, watch out for each other and the neighborhood. Members learn how to report activities that raise their suspicions to the police. You can form a watch group around any geographical unit, a block, apartment, park, business area, public housing complex or office. Watch groups are not vigilantes.