BLAND — Belle Neighborhood Watch Coordinator Linda Moore shared the National Neighborhood Watch manual, published by USAonWatch.org to help explain her vision for the future of the program.

“Let's make Belle a safer place by getting involved in our local Neighborhood Watch Program,” Moore said.

As part of her candidate speech Jan. 6, Moore mentioned several ideas in line with the program’s suggested curriculum (see Neighborhood Watch has new coordinator, co-coordinator on page 1).

To explain what the group and her position entails, she begins by sharing the definition of the program: a group of people living in the same area who want to make their neighborhood safer by working together and in conjunction with local law enforcement to reduce crime and improve their quality of life.

Benefits of Neighborhood Watch include crime reduction, a better quality of life, a greater sense of security, responsibility, and personal control, build community pride and unity, preparing for helping each other and the community.

Reasons for Neighborhood Watch include building a stronger community, getting to know neighbors, basic crime prevention, practice crime safety measures that eliminate opportunities for criminals, encourage others to join in crime prevention efforts, aid others when they become victims of crime, work for a better and safer neighborhood through protecting and honoring the rights of others. Disaster preparedness and learning skills to prepare for man-made and natural disasters were also included. Local, state and the federal government do a lot to prepare for disasters but citizens have to be ready to care for each other.

As Neighborhood Watch Coordinator, Moore’s responsibilities include organizing informative meetings that will include topics such as the group’s purpose,rRecognizing suspicious behavior, personal safety, safety for the hearing impaired, street safety, child/stranger safety, crime prevention through environmental design, home security, awareness and patrol techniques, observation, first aid/CPR, animal control, scams such as internet crimes, parent to parent, school resource officer, community policing, volunteer programs, emergency preparedness, patrol aspects, search and rescue, and drug/narcotic awareness to name a few.

She will also be responsible for creating and maintaining accurate information on social media outlets such as Facebook; creating a newsletter (both printed and electronic) to distribute accurate information around the community; maintaining a current list of participants and neighborhood residents; acting as liaison between Watch members, officers, civic groups, and block captains; arranging neighborhood crime prevention training programs; obtaining and distributing crime prevention materials, such as stickers and signs; involving others to develop specific crime prevention projects; encouraging participation in “operation identification,” a nationwide program in which personal property is marked legibly with a unique identifying number to permit positive identification if valuables are lost or stolen.

For more information about the new program, contact Moore at Belleneighborhoodwatch@gmail.com. A phone number and Facebook account will be set up soon.

Meetings will be held the first at 6:30 p.m. the first Monday of the month at Belle City Hall.