Eagle-Eyes has often wondered how many Neighborhood Watch signs have been posted, over the years, throughout Petaluma. He asked The Trio to explore the concept of NW and report on its purpose and what the signs mean.

Me took on the task of counting the actual number of NW signs in his neighborhood development of 167 homes and found eight.  Myself checked the Internet and discovered that the basic purpose of NW groups is described on the Petaluma Police Dept. website as follows, when asked: What is Neighborhood Watch?

“Neighborhood watch is a crime prevention program, which enlists the active participation of citizens in partnership with the police department to reduce crime in their communities. It involves: (1) Neighbors getting to know each other, taking the time to care about each other and working together in a program of mutual assistance, (2) Citizens being trained to recognize and report suspicious activities in the their neighborhoods, (3) Crime prevention strategies such as home security, Operation Identification and others being implemented by citizens. You may hear it called Neighborhood Watch, Home Alert, Citizens Crime Watch or Block Watch. The names differ, but the idea is the same: Neighbors looking out for each other!”

I remembers that his residential area created several NW groups as it  was built over 17 years ago. Today, these same neighborhood groups still maintain a Neighborhood Electronic Conference Board to enhance communications between the neighbors, 24/7.

Hammerhead concludes that the NW concept, as original proposed, “hits the nail on the head;” however, he can’t find too many neighborhood “nails” that are actually maintaining an active NW group, today. Consequently, Our River Town blog team still wonders what today’s residents think a bout all these NW signs posted throughout Petaluma. What do they really mean? Any thoughts? Please post your comments.