Neighbourhood watch worth doing?

B

Bubbly Scot

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Is there any gain to forming a neighbourhood watch as opposed to a group of neighbours organising an informal information/help service?

We live in a rural road where people keep themselves to themselves but a recent run of breakins has a couple of neighbours wanting to be proactive. I can't see the need for a neighbourhood watch scheme but if forming one meant we'd gain something (like road signs) then it might be an option.

I'm not too concerned about legalities because the plan is to ask people to opt in, no money involved, we're keen to keep it as informal as possible. If however, there was more to gain with a formal neighbourhood watch I might suggest we take that route instead.

The garda webpage, which would probably be the most useful is down so I can't find any info there.
 
I also live in a rural area and have mixed feelings about this. I've seen NW schemes in rural areas having a detrimental affect in that locals can feel encouraged to act over zealously and are suspicious of anything and everything. Paranoia can easily creep in.

Important to have some perspective on the break-ins - how many and how frequently are we talking about? It might be that another break-in is statistically highly unlikely for 10 years or more.

You could find that joe is calling a meeting every time he sees a van that he doesn't recognise.

Nothing against NW per se, and sometimes it's a good idea but just be wary of the can of worms you may be opening.
 
Garda site opens up ok here. Have another try as it has info on both the Neighbourhood Watch and Community Watch schemes.
 
Caveat said:
Important to have some perspective on the break-ins - how many and how frequently are we talking about? It might be that another break-in is statistically highly unlikely for 10 years or more.
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Two close by in last couple of weeks, one at the end of last summer (next door). I'm not aware of any others but those who have lived here longer are concerned.

You could find that joe is calling a meeting every time he sees a van that he doesn't recognise.
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We're hoping to avoid meetings. The idea was to gather contact info from anyone wanting to be involved and send a text out if anything caused concern. Admittedly, that could cause a load of unneccessary texts so definatly worth looking futher into that.

Thanks Paddybloggit,will give it another try.
 
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