There are many drivers of crime, and it can be overwhelming for communities to find ways to deal with high crime rates. However, there are strategies that they can use that will assist them in reducing crime rates while strengthening their community.
How Communities Can Band Together to Fight Crime
The community’s safety is something that nearly everyone worries about, as even the safest neighbourhoods are susceptible to crime. With there being an increase in crime rates, all members of your community must make some efforts to ensure that they maintain the community’s safety. There are various ways that you can adopt that will ensure that the community fights crime, and here are some strategies that your community can adopt that ensure that you work together to fight crime.
- Create a neighbourhood watch group
One of the most effective strategies to eliminate crime from the community is through a neighbourhood watch group. Watch groups consist of volunteers within the neighbourhood who look for suspicious activity in the community and take the time to report this activity to the local police department. These groups serve as neighbourhood surveillance when there are no police around, which effectively reduces the number of opportunities that contribute to crime.
Neighbourhood watch groups need the training to ensure that they are prepared and effective, and the police usually offer this training and support. Therefore, it is crucial that before starting a watch group, you reach out to the local police department as they will give you information about creating a watch group.
- Maintaining the upkeep of the area
Investing in the upkeep of the neighbourhood can play a significant role in reducing the risk of crime. Before criminals commit a crime in an area, they will first conduct a risk assessment of the physical environment. Communities with signs of deterioration, such as vandalised buildings, overgrown landscapes, and trash, will have higher crime rates than better-maintained ones. Therefore, criminals will tend to target communities that show signs of deterioration as they perceive them to be vulnerable with low risk.
To ensure that your community is safer, you must speak to the members of your community about starting a community clean-up program. You should explain to the members of the community the importance of keeping your neighbourhood clean.
- Encourages involvement in the community
Crime prevention is not the responsibility of the individual, but it is a team effort. Therefore, to curb crime within the community, all community members should play their part in deterring burglaries. Each home in the neighbourhood should invest in a home security system. Research indicates that neighbourhoods with home security systems were less likely to be targeted by criminals as fewer incidents of burglaries were reported than in communities with fewer security systems. Security systems make homes look less attractive to criminals. Speak to the neighbours about how security systems work to protect your homes and the benefits of having one. Encourage members of the community to use a reputable security company that will be able to recommend the best security system that will work for all your different lifestyles and security needs.
- Use technology
Though curbing crime is a team effort, and neighbours can help keep an eye on your home while you are away, you must invest in security solutions that enable you to monitor activity on your property 24/7. Smart home technology, such as enhanced home security that contains IP surveillance can significantly assist in this area. Smart home technology allows you to login remotely and view the activity occurring in your home from any device, such as a smartphone, computer or tablet. Smart technology can also allow you to lock and unlock your door, allowing for great convenience and arm and disarm your security system remotely.
- Support crime prevention by the police
For communities to curb crime, they must work hand in hand with the police. This will require all community members to realise and accept their social and moral obligation to help and assist the police in any initiatives that they might have to fight crime. The community should regularly meet with officers of the local police department and discuss problems and solutions to crime in their community. Through working with the police, the community will be in a position to reduce crime and the safety and security needs of their community.
Conclusion
Community efforts are necessary for curbing crime, and they assist in strengthening the fight against crime. It is crucial that the community constantly works together and communicates regularly about methods that they can use to improve the safety and security of their community while following the tips offered above.
See The Importance of a Neighbourhood Watch and How to Start One.
