The police will try to assign police reservists to supervise patrols whenever neighbourhood watches do patrol. Some neighbourhood watch members may become police reservists. Each neighbourhood watch has an area with clear boundaries, within a police area. There can be more than one neighbourhood watch in an area covered by one police station, as police station areas are very large.

Your neighbourhood watch should register with the local police and Community Police Forum (CPF) in your police area. To register you must adopt a constitution and code of conduct in line with the Provincial Constitution and Code of Conduct for Neighbourhood Watch Structures. In early 2003 there were 277 registered neighbourhood watches in the Western Cape.

Once your neighbourhood watch is registered, you can ask for financial and organisational support, as well as equipment and training, from the Western Cape Department of Community Safety. More than 150 neighbourhood watches in the Western Cape have already received equipment and training from the Department.

The kinds of training you can get from the Department include:

• conflict resolution
• criminal procedure
• domestic violence
• human rights
• fire fighting
• first aid
• radio procedure
• self-defence.

• accident tape
• batons
• first aid kits
• handcuffs
• jackets
• reflective vests
• torches
• traffic cones
• two-way radios
• whistles.

• Contacting your neighbourhood watch
• Registering a neighbourhood watch
• Training for neighbourhood watch members

To contact your neighbourhood watch, search this list. The contact person for each registered neighbourhood watch is listed. Remember there may be more than one neighbourhood watch in your police area. Alternatively, you can contact your nearest police station or Community Police Forum.

To register your neighbourhood watch, you need to register with the local police and local CPF, and also with the Department of Community Safety. You should register with the Department last. This is because one of their requirements is that you show that you have registered locally first. The local police and local CPF will ask for the following information about your neighbourhood watch when you register it with them:

• names and contact details of your committee members
• number of members
• a copy of your constitution
• a copy of your code of conduct
• financial statements, if the neighbourhood watch has a bank account and financial transactions have taken place
• the exact area of operation, e.g. street names.

The Department of Community Safety will need you to submit a form. On the form you must say that you have registered with your local police station and CPF and that you have a constitution and code of conduct that is in line with the Provincial Constitution and Code of Conduct for Neighbourhood Watch Structures. If you have any queries about registering your neighbourhood watch you can contact:

John Cloete
Assistant Director: Security Projects
Directorate Social Crime Prevention, Department of Community Safety
Tel: 021 483 4571
Fax: 021 483 2016
Cell: 082 574 4845
jcloete@pgwc.gov.za

You can also contact him to apply for equipment.

To apply for training for your neighbourhood watch, you should contact: