What can you do to keep your community safe? Find out about the following community groups with this information from the Home Office

Neighbourhood Watch

Street Watch

Neighbourhood constables

Crime prevention panels

Youth action groups

Voluntary organisations

Neighbourhood Watch
Neighbourhood Watch schemes are a way for people in an area to get together to help prevent crime and make their neighbourhood a safer place. Neighbourhood Watch is known as Home Watch in some areas, but both work along similar lines and are built on the same idea - of looking after one another and the neighbourhood.

How does it work?
Groups can vary in size, depending on the area and what people want. They target local concerns - like burglary, vandalism or graffiti and devise ways of dealing with them. Individual members decide how active they want to be in the scheme. You could become a committee member or even co-ordinator of a group - or you could just keep an eye on your neighbours' house while they're away.

Schemes develop close links with the police, who can provide advice and information about local problems. Well-run schemes can have a big impact on local crime.

Street Watch
You could also consider joining or setting up a Street Watch scheme - a new idea to use your eyes and ears to help the community. Neighbourhood Watch crime prevention activities are usually centred around people's homes and the immediate surrounding area. Street Watch is a separate scheme to take this a step further. In agreement with local police and local people, members work out specific routes and regularly walk their chosen area.

How does it work?
Street Watch members are ordinary citizens with no police powers. If they spot anything suspicious, all they are asked to do is report it to the police. They can also give active support to vulnerable people by offering transport or escort on foot.

Groups are managed by a co-ordinator who keeps a list of volunteers and provides advice, guidance and support - in consultation with the local police. Street Watch can help reduce crime because members actively use their local knowledge when out and about in their neighbourhood.

Street Watch guidelines
A set of guidelines for Street Watch activity has been agreed with the police - you can get a copy from your local police station. The guidelines include a basic set of Do's and Don'ts, which warn against intervening in an incident.

Other 'Watch' schemes
Watches need not be confined to residential neighbourhoods. For instance, Business Watches can be very effective in the high streets and industrial estates. Farm Watches can encourage farmers to keep an eye on one another's livestock and machinery. Boat Watches can greatly improve the security of marinas and harbours.

Neighbourhood Constables
Neighbourhood Constables are a variation of the existing Special Constables, who are police-trained, uniformed volunteers, with the same powers as a regular officer. Their duties are varied and they can be asked to work anywhere in their police force area.

In contrast, Neighbourhood Constables only work in a specific area - their own neighbourhood, so they become a regular figure on the local scene. In rural areas they may be called Parish Constables, but the idea is the same - to provide more police on the beat, with all the advantages a police presence brings.

Their main duties are foot patrols of a neighbourhood area. Neighbourhood Constables also keep in regular contact with community groups, Neighbourhood Watch and Street Watch schemes, schoolchildren and local traders - promoting initiatives, helping groups and offering advice. If you want to join contact your local police or call 0345 272 272 for a Specials information pack - and note 'Neighbourhood Constable' on your application.

Crime Prevention Panels
Crime Prevention Panels are locally organised groups who work in partnership with the police to identify local crime problems, and initiate local crime prevention measures to deal with them. Panel members are usually local Neighbourhood Watch co-ordinators, teachers, local business people or local media representatives. All bring their own particular area of expertise to the work of the panel.

Panel activities are generally related to particular crime problems in the area. Panels will draw up a plan of action and implement appropriate measures, e.g. fundraising to pay for security devices for elderly people's homes or organising a car window-etching campaign. Panels can be started by the local police, local business people or community groups.

Voluntary organisations
Many voluntary organisations support and develop crime prevention initiatives in local communities: