Neighborhood Watch

What is Neighborhood Watch?

Neighborhood Watch is a crime prevention program that enlists the active participation of citizens in cooperation with law enforcement to reduce crime in the community.

Becoming a Neighborhood Watch Captain involves:

• Neighbors getting to know each other
• Neighbors taking the time to care about each other and working together in a program of mutual assistance
• Citizens being trained to recognize and report suspicious activities in their neighborhood
• Very little time is required by the members – one short quarterly meeting and watching out for your neighbors

Neighborhood Watch is a crime prevention program through the cooperation between citizens and law enforcement to reduce crime in their communities. This program is a very effective way of educating each and every citizen on ways to prevent crime, and introduces the resources offered by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department into their communities.

An essential part of Neighborhood Watch is getting to know your neighbors and opening up the communication between your community and the Sheriff’s Department. In many cases, a crime occurs at a residence and is not reported to the police or mentioned to anyone in the community, and the homeowner is left feeling like the only victim. When a community gets together and communicates the issues to each other, many find that they too have been a victim of the same crime. Neighborhood Watch allows the opportunity for communication between neighbors and targets all issues in the community with the help of law enforcement.

Getting to know your neighbors will bring more security to your community and will benefit everyone. It is important to know general details about your neighbors, such as which vehicles they drive, how many vehicles should be in the driveway and how many children or grandchildren live in each house. Familiarizing yourself with this information will make it easier to notice a suspicious vehicle parked in a driveway or an unknown person walking into a home they don’t belong in. Get to know your neighbors and always keep in mind that the battle against crime will not be won by people acting on their own.

It is critical that all neighbors notify the Sheriff of all crimes and suspicious activities. Do not ever take things into your own hands, always notify the Sheriff.

• OC Sheriff Non-Emergency 949-770-6011
• OC Sheriff Emergency 911M

What is a Block Captain?

A Block Captain is a responsible neighbor who acts as a leader for the Neighborhood Watch program in their area of the community. It is the duty of a Block Captain to keep the communication open between neighbors and Neighborhood Watch Coordinators by passing along information about crimes in the neighborhood.. Block Captains are an essential part of Neighborhood Watch, and their willingness to help makes it possible to have a successful Neighborhood Watch program.

Bear Brand Ridge Neighborhood Watch Coordinators

Bear Brand Ridge Neighborhood Watch program is coordinated by Anne Rue and Scott Jakovich, both homeowners in Ridge. They plan quarterly meetings for all homeowners to attend in order to learn more about Neighborhood Watch. These meetings frequently have guest speakers. Recent speakers have been Laguna Niguel’s Crime Prevention Specialist and Laguna Niguel Emergency Preparedness Specialist.

If you would like to learn more about Neighborhood Watch or how to get involved please contact Anne Rue and Scott Jakovich: neighborhoodwatch@bearbrandridgehoa.com

Links

• Orange County Sheriff’s blotter, http://ws.ocsd.org/Blotter/
• View recent crimes in our area
• Alert OC, http://bos.ocgov.com/alertoc/alertoc.asp
• AlertOC is a mass notification system designed to keep Orange County residents and businesses informed of emergencies and certain community events.
• By registering with AlertOC, time-sensitive voice messages from the County or City in which you live or work may be sent to your home, cell or business phone. Text messages may also be sent to cell phones, e-mail accounts and hearing impaired receiving devices.
• City of Laguna Niguel website, http://cityoflagunaniguel.org/
• Laguna Niguel Patch, http://lagunaniguel.patch.com/
• Current updates on news and recent happenings in Laguna Niguel