Neighborhood Watch Program

What is Neighborhood Watch?

Neighborhood Watch is a group of citizens who have organized themselves with the goal of taking an active role in making their community healthy and crime-free. To accomplish this, the citizens work with law enforcement and other city resources.

By building a problem-solving network that encourages citizens to form a bond to maintain their neighborhoods, both as a deterrent to crime and as a way to make the neighborhood a good place to live, residents solve their own problems. This is the basis of a strong community-policing program.

Neighborhood Watch is not a: 

• Citizen vigilante group
• Program that encourages personal risk
• Guarantee that crime will not occur in a Neighborhood Watch community

 What Does a Neighborhood Watch Program Look Like?

A Neighborhood Watch program is built by neighbors who identify concerns, criminal activity, and ways to work toward improving the quality of life in their community.

The program operates through a communication chain that includes the Crime Prevention Team, block captains, and residents. Crime Prevention Officers, Community Services Officers, and other resources are also made available to help improve the quality of their communities.

How is the Police Department Involved?

The Wheat Ridge Police Department supports citizen efforts to coordinate Neighborhood Watch programs. While the Police Department coordinates and tracks Neighborhood Watch areas, it is community members/volunteers, not police officers, who actually make this program work.

The Police Department will provide officers to conduct the initial Neighborhood Watch meeting along with any quarterly or yearly meetings. For more information or help setting up a Neighborhood Watch program, contact the Crime Prevention Unit at 303-235-2910 or [email protected]