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A significant advantage of being part of an organized neighborhood watch affiliated with the police is that you become a known quantity to the police. Police should respond to all calls of suspicious activity, but human nature being what it is, they are going to have more confidence in calls from known people than out of the blue ones.

Additionally, if things go bad, the police are going to be more likely to sort the known people with a history of doing good into the good guy category. Eureka40''s call into the SO to let them know he is out and about sounds like an excellent practice. (In George Z's case, I don't think the police ever thought he was out of line and they were not interested in prosecuting him. HIs prosecution was a classic politically driven one, that became painfully obvious during the trial itself.)

I think the citizen's watch idea is a noble one, but disarming licensed citizens undercuts that nobility severely. If you go out, you are in fact looking for trouble, you just intend to stay back, watch, and report. However there is a non-zero chance that the trouble you are watching and reporting on will come to you, so it is reprehensible to ask people to go look for crime but disarm them when they do so.

I was formerly a member of my local PD's Community Assistance Support Team (CAST) and also considered joining my neighborhood watch. Ultimately I quit CAST and didn't join the neighborhood watch because they didn't allow for people to be armed. I quickly figured out I could better protect myself and family by being armed and being with them instead of unarmed and separated from them.

I do keep an eye out for suspicious happenings in my neighborhood but I refuse to be unarmed. As LTC or otherwise, we all have the same obligation to get involved or not get involved as the situation dictates guided by legality and your moral conviction.

I refuse to put my self out there unarmed while leaving my family unprotected.

While on watch, don't forget your trinket:

Unfortunately one act (George Z) ruined for everyone carrying while on organized community watch. I've been through the training for Fort Worth's Citizens on Patrol and during the training the instructor hinted/cited it as the reason why volunteers are not allowed to carry while patrolling. From a police department liability stand point (since in Fort Worth COP is run by PD) they just can't allow it. It is interesting that they expect you to be marked (visible deterrent) while out looking for criminal activity and your only defense (assuming your not crazy enough to be on foot or bike) is to drive away.

Soccerdad1995 wrote:If you are just worried about keeping your neighborhood safe, you could also just make a practice of taking evening strolls through the neighborhood and being polite enough to say hello to various folks you might come across.

While Open Carrying of course!!