Homeland Security Is Rooted in Hometown Safety

Message From the President and CEO

By Alfonso E. Lenhardt

Yellow-and-black Neighborhood Watch stickers and signs pop up in neighborhoods everywhere. They tell would-be criminals that citizens are keeping an eye out for suspicious behavior and warn would-be criminals that not only are they unwelcome, but they will also be reported to law enforcement. Neighborhood Watch groups provide a link that binds neighbor to neighbor in a common cause. They are the glue that keeps a community together.

In recent years, Neighborhood Watch, which epitomizes the crime prevention principle of watching out and helping out, has spawned a host of other watch-type organizations.

There are port watches, mall watches, hospital watches, school watches, rail watches, and others. The list of these worthy endeavors is long. Port watches are particularly significant because they involve close collaboration between businesses, port authorities, and often the Department of Homeland Security. Organized crime is sometimes involved in port thefts, where whole shipping containers are sometimes stolen, resulting in the largest revenue loss of any single type of crime. Port watches are just one example of a relatively new phenomenon—businesses that join together to prevent crime and adopt the watching out and helping out principle.

In this Catalyst, there’s a story about the Clean & Safe program operated by the downtown Portland, OR, Business Improvement District. There, imaginative activities have kept downtown streets clean, the homeless sheltered, and citizens and merchants alike protected from theft and other forms of crime and harassment. Janae Davis-Saunders, president of the Oregon Crime Prevention Association, says Portland’s program proves that community policing doesn’t have to involve only law enforcement. Rather, it embodies the essence of the community policing spirit by giving everyone in the community a role to play.

In Washington, DC, a program launched and paid for by merchants has designated one part of downtown a Golden Triangle. In the Triangle, yellow-uniformed attendants provide directions to local citizens and visitors alike and sweep the streets clean. Both the Washington and Portland programs are based on the “broken windows” theory that if a neighborhood is allowed to deteriorate, it will invite crime. This is one case where keeping up appearances isn’t just a matter of civic pride, but a paramount principle of crime prevention.

There is a common thread in these programs—they were all initiated by private citizens or businesses. Other citizen-led initiatives may be more familiar. Parent-Teacher Associations often provide patrols before and after school—and even during school hours—to make sure children are safe from bullies, drug dealers, and predators. Utility companies have come together with NCPC’s help to operate the McGruff Truck program, which will summon help for a child in need. Similarly, McGruff Houses provide safe places where any child who feels endangered can go for help.

Whether business- or citizen-led, the watches and the other groups I’ve mentioned all have their roots in the community. Port watches reduce crime and help get rid of the perpetrators, thus making the surrounding area safer. Portland’s Clean & Safe program virtually shouts that criminals aren’t welcome. Neighborhood Watches have been deterring crime for decades.

Above all, these programs serve one other very important purpose. In uniting neighbors with neighbors, in watching out and helping out, they enhance the capacity for emergency preparedness. After all, hometown safety is at the core of homeland security. A neighborhood, whether it be a suburban community or downtown area or even a busy port, is more secure against a natural disaster or a terrorist attack when its residents or workers are already united in a common purpose.