Ballast Point

Guidelines for Neighborhood Watch Members

Get acquainted with your neighbors.

Exchange names, addresses, and phone numbers with your neighbors.

Give your neighbors your business and emergency phone numbers where you can be reached.

Give your residence and neighborhood maximum visibility by keeping shrubbery neatly trimmed.  Use exterior lighting, especially at doors.

Know your neighbor’s automobiles.

Post the address numbers of your residence where they can be readily seen from the street. 

Have your mail and paper picked up by a trusted neighbor while you are on vacation or place a hold at www.usps.com and with your newspaper by phone or through their website.

Keep a written inventory of your possessions.

Have emergency phone numbers readily available by the telephone:

Fire, Police, and Medical Emergencies: 9-1-1

Poison Center: 1-800-222-1222

To report a crime in progress, call 9-1-1.  Continue to observe the subject or subjects and obtain a description as well as a mode and direction of travel.  Do not confront the subjects.

To report suspicious activity, please call Tampa Police Dispatch at 813-231-6130.  Identify yourself to the police communications operator as a Neighborhood Watch member.

Use Vacation Watch, a free service provided by Tampa Police Department by filling out the request  at http://www.tampagov.net/police/program/vacationwatch. 

Take an active interest in your neighborhood.

Attend Neighborhood Watch meetings.

Encourage your neighbors to be involved.

Your coordinator will keep in contact with the Tampa Police Department - District One Crime Prevention Unit and inform them about community concerns and the dates of your Neighborhood Watch meetings.

This is not a vigilante committee.  We are the eyes and ears assisting the police in making our neighborhood a safe place to live.