It starts by your meeting with your neighbors, the ones next door and across the street from you and making a mutual agreement with each of them to watch for suspicious activities around your homes and to notify each other and the police of anything that appears to be out of the ordinary. This means a mutual understanding that it is OK to call the police or your neighbors about something unusual to you, even if you are not one hundred percent sure that something is wrong! It would be far better to call your neighbor and ask them if the car parked in front of their house belongs to friends of theirs than to find out the next day that your neighbor was burglarized.

It also means understanding that sometimes you or your neighbors might be wrong. That it is possible to call the police about suspicious persons walking down the street to find out later that they live several houses away. The police department does not expect you to recognize every criminal. It has been the experience of the Seville Police Department that citizens here do not mind explaining that they are just out for a walk when they learn that neighbors called about someone they did not recognize. Most thank the officers for being concerned enough about the area to take the time to check. They know that if the police will check on them, that they will be checking the criminals as well! Once this agreement is reached with your immediate neighbors, the groundwork for a successful neighborhood watch program has been put in place. The idea behind a successful neighborhood watch program is to keep it simple and reliable. You are the eyes and the ears of your neighbors and police. You should immediately call the police by dialing "911" if you see:

• A crime is being committed.
• Suspicious persons or persons whose behaviors seem odd to you.
• Suspicious cars in your neighborhood, or ones parked where people do not usually park.
• Juveniles out after curfew. The curfew in Seville begins at 11 :00 p.m., Sunday through Thursday and at 12:00 midnight on Friday and Saturday.
• Unusual persons or happenings at a neighbor's house, for instance, people around the home when the owners are usually at work.
• Dogs barking as if to warn off an intruder.
• At any time a person or situation appears to be suspicious to you, even if you are not sure of the reason for this suspicion

As a police officer, one of the most frustrating things is to find out several days after an event that there were witnesses who did not call the police. They usually say that they did not want to bother the police department since they really weren't sure if something was wrong, or they simply didn't think that the police would be interested in knowing about a car full of kids sitting at the end of a dead end street.

Many, many bad guys have been caught because a citizen called the police not knowing if a crime was being committed or not. Remember, the police won't know either until they investigate and they certainly don't expect you to know from the information you can gather from your window!

As a rule, if a person looks suspicious, acts suspicious or is in an unusual area (your backyard at two in the morning!), that person is suspicious and should be checked out. People who are about to commit a crime or who are up to no good display visual clues that you may pick up on not even knowing what to look for. If you are not sure, take the safe route and call the police.

The Seville Police Department contracts with the Medina County Sheriff's Office for dispatching services during the time that our own dispatcher is not at work. This means that the person that you are talking to might not be familiar with the area, or with the names of your neighbors across the street. These dispatchers are trained to get certain information from each caller: your name and address and your phone number. This information is vital in the event that the connection is lost (with GTE?) or if the officer needs more detailed information about the situation.

The dispatcher will probably ask you to remain on the line, so that you can continue to advise them of the situation. For instance, you might be able to tell the dispatcher that the person you were calling about just ducked behind a bush as the police car drove by, or that they ran to a car. Remember that you are the eyes and the ears on the scene until the police arrive.

One common concern is that the criminal will learn who called about them. There are three things to remember:

1. This information is never given out.
2. This information is never given out.
3. This information is never given out.

The police officers on the scene will never tell a criminal who called about them or even how it is that the police learned about the crime. After all, the police don't want to make the criminal any smarter! The police officer himself usually won't know who called until after the call. That information just isn't important to him at the time. What is important is that somebody is witnessing something unusual for their neighborhood and has taken the time to call about it. Police, like a reporter on a hot scoop, fight to protect their sources!

When calling the police about a suspicious person or event, you do not have to give your name. But a word of caution. The actions taken by the officer responding to your call could be influenced by that fact.

For example, if you witness two people across the street from you, one standing on the sidewalk and one going through your neighbor's car and call the police and tell them about the event and do not give your name, and the police respond and find both persons standing on the sidewalk, it is quite possible that neither person will be arrested even though a crime has been committed! This is because the officer did not see the person going through the car, and without a witness who can be identified and who could testify that the person in the red shirt was going through the cars, no arrest can be made. Being resistant to crime often involves civic duty as well, the willingness to become involved and to make a stand. This is true even when it means possibly testifying to the facts in court. That's simply how the system works.

For instance, if two men in a black Ford truck with an orange camper top have victimized the neighborhood on the other side of town, it would be wise to alert you and your neighbors of this fact. That way, when you are coming home with a late night pizza and notice a truck of that type in your neighbor's driveway, you would have some idea as to what was going on.

This is where the Block Captain becomes involved. The police department has limited resources and time. It would be impossible for an officer to contact each of you by phone and to explain about the truck and the problems associated with it. By having a Block Captain assigned to every ten houses or so, this information could be disseminated quickly and efficiently.

A Block Captain is simply a leader in your community who agrees to work with the police department in getting vital information to you. Each Block Captain would be assigned a certain number of homes near him whom he would call with information passed on by the police department.

In our example, the police department could call ten Block Captains and advise them of the strange truck and of the problem in the area. The Block Captain would then simply call his ten neighbors and tell them that the police department just called and said that another neighborhood has had three burglaries where a black Ford truck with an orange camper top was seen in the area. By placing only ten calls to key people, the police department has been able to alert one hundred ten households about a potential problem!

This same method works for the dissemination of printed material as well. It is the goal of the police department to keep each neighbor informed of the events elsewhere in the Village by the publication of a quarterly news bulletin. This information can only be passed out with the cooperation of the leaders in your neighborhood. If you are serious about wanting to eliminate the crime in your neighborhood, contact the police department about becoming a Block Captain.

The police department notifies the block Captain of current crime problems in the area. The captain notifies the neighbors in his/her group. At other times, the neighborhood watches out for each other, advising neighbors of suspicious activities or call the police when needed.

Communication is the key to a successful watch program, not only between citizens and the police, but between neighbors as well. Knowledge is power, and the more people who know about the criminal activity in an area the better the neighborhood is prepared to deal with the threat.

The police department notifies the Block Captain of current crime problems in the area. The captain notifies the neighbors in his group. At other times, the neighborhood watches out for each other, advising neighbors of suspicious activities or calling the police when needed. Neighbors should try to keep each other informed of vandalism, thefts or suspicious persons and cars so that others can be on the lookout for the same type of problem.

These reports to other neighbors do not have to be lengthy or detailed, but should alert others to the potential problem. Once you alert your neighbors to problems that you have encountered, you will be surprised how readily they are to alert you as well.

The goal of the neighborhood watch program is to give potential criminals the feeling that everyone in the community is watching every move they make! Thieves know that a neighborhood participating in such a program is nothing but trouble for them...even when those thieves are professionals.

You need not be home constantly or be "on guard" on your property. Simply report any suspicious or unusual activity to the police immediately. It's as simple as that. Remember that the only crime that will be committed in YOUR neighborhood is what YOU and YOUR neighbors will tolerate! Well-organized and close-knit neighborhoods experience much less crime and other related problems.

The neighborhood watch program operates on the idea that the best crime prevention device ever invented is a good neighbor." If you call when you see suspicious activity in your neighborhood, be aware of crime and it's effects, and practice good security habits, your chances of ever becoming a victim of a crime in your neighborhood become less and less.