Neighbourhood Watch

Thank you to all who responded to the survey and attended the Forum’s meeting on Wednesday 26th June. Your contributions help shape the work of Neighbourhood Policing. It was agreed to retain the following focus areas: BURGLARY – DRUGS – SPEEDING. Presentations from the meeting, by Inspector James Ellis and by Robert Gibson on the survey results, minutes, and a video playback, can viewed/downloaded from the meeting page.

The mission and values of Neighbourhood Watch resonate very strongly with the goals of the Forum. In addition to the Forum’s platform for interaction between residents and neighbourhood policing, we strongly encourage residents and communities to work together to develop greater resilience for their person, their property and their community.

Neighbourhood Watch is the biggest voluntary crime prevention movement in England and Wales. Its premise is to bring people together as neighbours and communities to help prevent crime.

Thames Valley Neighbourhood Watch Association (TVNWA) summarises its aims for its NW schemes as follows:

To enable members to reduce the opportunities for crime and to make it more difficult for criminal activity in their neighbourhood.
To reduce the fear of crime, and pass on crime information and other important messages from the police and Neighbourhood Watch
To encourage the reporting of crime or suspicious activity directly to the police or through CrimeStoppers.
To foster a caring, neighbourly attitude to improve the wider resilience and friendliness of the areas we cover.
To help inform the public at large how to stay safe and improve the safety of our communities.

A formal ‘Framework‘ is in place to foster better relationships and working practices between Neighbourhood Watch volunteers and Police Officers at a local level. At a time when rebuilding trust between Communities and Police is paramount, this relationship should be key.

Neighbourhood Watch in Chiltern & South Bucks

Neighbourhood Watch schemes are headed by local coordinators. They can vary in size from schemes covering a few houses, to a group of streets or an area scheme covering a whole rural village. Sometimes area (and/or ward) coordinators may be appointed, providing structure and cohesion for larger and more active watch schemes and an extra link to the local police and Neighbourhood Watch Network.

Within the area covered by Chiltern and South Bucks Policing Issues Forum, we have two ‘multi-scheme coordinators’: Paul McConnell in South Buckinghamshire (East) – essentially Chiltern – and Jane Brown in the South Bucks area. Link to contact details.

By visiting NW’s ‘Find My Local Scheme’ page you can find your nearest scheme(s).

The Thames Valley Neighbourhood Watch Association provides additional support and resource, working in close partnership with Thames Valley Police and other agencies.

Links and Resources

Thames Valley Police – Neighbourhood Watch

Neighbourhood Watch – website

Neighbourhood Watch – YouTube channel

AVAST UK – Cyberhood Watch

Neighbourhood Watch Free Crime Prevention Webinars

13th February 2023

Neighbourhood Watch is running a series of free Crime Prevention webinars throughout February. Places available on Psychology of Scams and Preventing Burglary with WIDEN.

More… Neighbourhood Watch Free Crime Prevention Webinars