Prince William County Police Department

A Community Watch, formerly known as Neighborhood Watch, is an organized effort by concerned citizens to improve the quality of life in their community in cooperation with the police department.

Community members work to safeguard each other’s homes to reduce the risk of crime in their community.

Coordinator Duties

Every Community Watch has a point of contact that is the liaison between the community and the police department. Duties include:

• Disseminate information with the watch members
• Maintain email distribution list or other way to communicate with members.
• Recruit new members and encourage the reporting of crime and suspicious activity.

Get Started

1. Determine your target area | We recommend your street with a few other intersecting streets. We suggest at least 12 homes, but if you have more than 35 you will need another dedicated neighbor to co-coordinate the watch with you. Traditionally smaller watches have proven to be more effective.
2. Determine the interest | Introduce yourself to your neighbors and explain why you’re interested in starting a watch. Determine the level The more neighbors interested and participating in the program the more successful it is.
3. Attend a training date | Training dates are offered monthly by the Prince William County Police Department. Encourage everyone to attend! Dates are available every month if there is a scheduling conflict.

Maintaining the Watch
Get as many neighbors involved in the program as possible! Not everyone will want to participate, that’s ok!
Make sure everyone knows about the program and that they are always welcome to attend the meetings or events.

Tips to Increase Participation

• Stop thinking of Community Watch only in terms of a “crime program”. Community Watch can be a tool for improving the quality of life on your street.
• Consider the size of your watch - It is easier to organize and motivate small groups rather than large ones.
• Identify a need in the community and organize a response to it - bring people together for a common good. Plant flowers in the common area or do a yard cleanup for a neighbor in need.
• Do something fun! - It doesn’t have to be expensive or elaborate but can help get the ball rolling, even if it only draws in a few neighbors.
• Do something easy - if you have a list of problems in the communitystart with the one you can resolve quickly.

Business Watch is one of the most effective and inexpensive ways to prevent crime. Business Watch enables individual businesses to take an active part in prevention and reducing crime through information sharing, raising awareness and training employees how to recognize criminal activity.

The goal of Business Watch is to provide educational information and crime prevention techniques to increase the security of businesses and create a safer environment for customers, clients and employees.

As a member, you are the eyes and ears of the police department in your place of business. By making the effort to report criminal activity, you are making your business as well as surrounding community a safer place.

All Businesses Welcome
Any business in Prince William County is eligible to become part of the Business Watch program.  Whether your organization / business has customers, clients or simply just staff members, we encourage you to be participate in the program.

Informational Alerts / Messages
Business Watch members receive e-mail updates, crime trends, safety tips, incident reports and any additional information deemed pertinent to the safety and security of your business and employees.

Complete this Business Emergency Contact letter form to register with the Police. 

The Worship Watch program is similar to Community Watch except that it is designed for members of a church, synagogue, mosque or temple.

Partnership
Common Crimes targeting houses of worship include larceny, burglary, vandalism and arson. It is the responsibility of all members of the congregation, police department and surrounding community to work together to deter these crimes. This goal can be accomplished by enhancing security at the House of Worship and by observing and reporting suspicious activity.

Worship Watch is a proactive program. The program is intended to encourage Houses of Worship to become more involved in reducing the opportunity for crimes to occur on their premises. The congregation and community residents will be more aware and quick to report any suspicious activity.

Why Join a Worship Watch?

• You will take part in addressing problems and concerns within your facility as well as surrounding community.
• You will be assisting in helping reduce crime at your facility, making you, your family and congregation safer.
• You will be instilling unity and camaraderie through a safer house of worship.

Worship Watch Objective

• Increase awareness of community crime through an information sharing process
• Train staff/members in making their facility, personal property and community more secure.
• Develop an action program where staff/members remain alert and aware of their surrounding and report suspicious persons, activities and crimes to the Prince William County Police Department.

Make the Commitment
Your participation is necessary to make the program successful. We need you and the watch members to make the following commitments.

• Look out for your congregation and community.
• Report any unusual / suspicious persons, vehicles or activities.
• Make your facility as burglar resistant as possible.
• Explain to new members the purpose of the program.
• Stay safe!

Getting Started
The process for starting a Worship Watch at your facility is a simple one. Follow the steps below to become a sanctioned Worship Watch.

• Get approval from the House of Worship leadership and select a coordinator. Contact the Crime Prevention Unit at 703-792-7270.
• Participate in a Worship Watch training session.
• Establish a way to effectively communicate with each other (i.e. email, phone tree or social media). Share information with your staff members, security teams, and congregation.

Benefits of Worship Watch

• Create a greater awareness of crime and crime prevention techniques.
• Crime prevention training.
• Provides a contact within the Police Department.
• Free security assessment.
• Receive crime alerts and other crime prevention information.
• Results in a safer community.

The goal of Fleet Watch is to increase the eyes and ears in our community to better detect criminal activity. This is done by organizing employees who drive vehicles throughout Prince William County during their normal work routine. Several examples of this would include tow truck, utility, phone, delivery, and maintenance company drivers. The police cannot be everywhere all the time, so we rely on citizens to assist us in a variety of ways.

Community crime prevention programs work, and Fleet Watch is one of the most effective and inexpensive ways to prevent crime in Prince William County. The Fleet Watch program helps to reduce all types of crime and improves the relationship between the police and the business community.

The Fleet Watch program not only enables drivers to quickly notify the police with reports of criminal activity in progress, but the Police Department also provides participants with crime alerts for known suspects, vehicles, or specific crimes.

Fleet Watch drivers are not expected, nor are they encouraged, to physically intervene in a situation that they might observe. Drivers should use their two-way radio (if applicable) or cell phone to quickly call police and report the suspicious activity or incident.

There are situations in which door-to-door activity is not restricted. For more information, please view our Police FAQs page.

Property owners may prohibit persons from trespassing on their property, but the person must first be put on notice. Signs are enforceable. Verbal, in-person notice will suffice. Written notice, personally served on the party, is optimal.

Contact the Traffic Safety Hotline at 703-792-5919.

Contact the Parking Enforcement Services hotline at 703-792-8536.

Contact Prince William County Neighborhood Services at 703-792-7018.