SFCC Block Watch Chair

Block Watch is a long-standing partnership between the city and citizens. This is a program of neighbors looking out for each other. It is designed to enlist the active participation of citizens to reduce crime by reporting suspicious activity to police and improve the quality of life in their neighborhoods.

What Is Block Watch?

This is a simple program of neighbors watching out for each other. It is designed to enlist the active participation of citizens in cooperation with the police to reduce crime and improve the quality of life in their neighborhoods.

  • It is becoming acquainted with your neighbors.
  • It is working together to identify and solve problems in your community.
  • It is helping the police by being aware of and reporting any unusual activities as they occur.
  • It is the implementation of crime prevention techniques to enhance home security.
  • It is putting neighbors back into neighborhoods.
  • It is NOT apprehending someone … leave that to the police.

How Does Block Watch Work?

Block Watch works when you and your neighbors use simple techniques to deter, delay, and detect crime, and improve the quality of life for the neighborhood.

Being aware of criminal activity can help in keeping your neighborhood safe. Promptly reporting all criminal or suspicious activity to 9-1-1- or Crime Stop at (602) 262-6161 helps the police assist you in promoting a safe and healthy neighborhood.

Responsibilities for a SFCC Block Watch Representative

  • Must be available for periodic, medium commitment training opportunities provided by the City of Phoenix; either in person or remotely. (Attend the one-time PNP training). There are several other training opportunities one could take for a volunteer with a more generous time commitment to the role.
  • Must be able to participate in group communications via Facebook.
  • Must be willing to attend at least three of the six Acoma Park Block Watch regular meetings, promote those meetings within the Sunburst Farms community and lead topics of discussion for the benefit of the community.
  • Must be an effective communicator both verbally and in writing so as to communicate issues and ideas in person during meetings and in writing on the group’s Facebook pages.
  • Must be willing to commit to flexible, periodic patrols of the community either by car or on foot when entering or leaving the community to observe and report suspicious activity.
  • Rarely, but potentially, file the occasional police report online or report blight issues as needed via email.
  • The ideal representative would also solicit volunteers to undergo training and lead them in the participation of patrols as needed.

 

Purposeful patrols should only take a few hours a week and would best be done by a person who is out of the house a lot but not out of the neighborhood. This person is probably a jogger, a regular walker or a person who regularly takes the kids out and about to the park or their favorite play location. A patrol is also the person who sits on their front porch in the morning or afternoon and observes the school buses picking up and dropping off.

Questions? Please contact Loretta Price at (602) 332-6909.