• Neighborhood Watch
  • Why have a neighborhood watch
  • Take a stand
  • Getting together
  • Taking back the neighborhood
  • Things neighbors can do
  • Neighborhood watch brochures
  • Organizers Guide
• Child Safety
  • Bicycle Safety
  • Bullying
  • Can I Help Make My Child's School Safer?
  • Child Abuse
  • Child Car Seats
  • Child Dispute Resolution
  • Child Fingerprinting and ID
  • Child Safety Training
  • Crime Prevention Tips for Children
    • 10 Things Kids Can do to Prevent Violence
    • Prevention of Crimes Against Children
    • What Children Need to Know
• Home Security
  • Alarm Program
  • Burglary Prevention
  • Emergency Planning
  • Home Security Checklist
  • Home Security Hardware
  • Home Security Questionairre
  • Vacation Home Check Program
• Personal Security
  • ATM Banking Safety
  • Avoiding Violence
  • Bicycle Safety
  • Crime Prevention for Your Vehicle
  • Crime Prevention for Seniors
  • Domestic Violence
    • Getting Help
    • Myths and Facts
  • Recognizing Abuse and Getting Help
  • Fraud Prevention
• Drug Awareness
  • Drug Free School Zones
  • Talking With Kids About Drugs
  • How Can I Help a Friend With a Drug or Alcohol Problem
  • Inhalents and Marijuana
  • Narcotics and Drug Prevention
  • Clandestine Drug Labs
  • Prescription Drug Abuse
• Gang Awareness
  • Keeping Kids out of Gangs
  • Graffiti and Vandalism
  • What Parents Can Do
• Business Security
  • Alarm Program
  • Crime Prevention Tips for Businesses
    • Buisness Robberies
    • Protecting Company Information
    • Taking Crime Prevention to Work
• Special Services
  • Crime Pin Mapping
  • School Resource Officer
  • Weekly Crime Activity Report

Things Neighbors Can Do

Everyone Can Do Something

As you get under way, it’s important to enlist the help of as many people as possible from your community. There’s something each person can do to help. Anyone can hand out educational brochures. Young children can pick up litter or learn to settle arguments without fighting; older youth can teach younger ones about preventing violence or organize positive activities like concerts that can replace drug traffic in a nearby park. Caring adults can help troubled youth; families can help each other. Business people can help manage programs and raise funds; civic activists can round up local agencies to meet needs like recreation, housing, or education. Many things help cause crime, violence, and drug abuse problems in a community; many kinds of activity will help to end the problems. Some may be more direct than others, but all will help.

Anyone—and everyone—can take the most basic actions, like reporting suspicious behavior or crimes in progress to the police. Whatever the contribution of time, energy, talent, and resources—small or large—it will help.

Ten Things You and Your Neighbors Can Do

1. Work with public agencies and other organizations - neighborhood-based or community-wide - on solving common problems. Don't be shy about letting them know what your community needs.

2. Make sure that all the youth in the neighborhood have positive ways to spend their spare time, through organized recreation, tutoring programs, part-time work, and volunteer opportunities.

3. Set up a Neighborhood Watch or a community patrol, working with police. Make sure your streets and homes are well lighted.

4. Build a partnership with police, focused on solving problems instead of reacting to crises. Make it possible for neighbors to report suspicious activity or crimes without fear of retaliation.

5. Take advantage of "safety in numbers" to hold rallies, marches, and other group activities to show you're determined to drive out crime and drugs.

6. Clean up the neighborhood! Involve everyone - teens, children, senior citizens. Graffiti, litter, abandoned cars, and run-down buildings tell criminals that you don't care about where you live or each other. Call the city public works department and ask for help in cleaning up.

7. Ask local officials to use new ways to get criminals out of your building or neighborhood. These include enforcing anti-noise laws, housing codes, health and fire codes, anti-nuisance laws, and drug-free clauses in rental leases.

8. Form a Court Watch to help support victims and witnesses and to see that criminals get fairly punished.

9. Work with schools to establish drug-free, gun-free zones; work with recreation officials to do the same for parks.

10. Develop and share a phone list of local organizations that can provide counseling, job training, guidance, and other services that neighbors might need.

Stay Safe

In the Stay Safe section of our website, you can find a number of tips and ideas to do just that. Stay safe! We believe at the Lincoln Police Department that education is a key factor in crime prevention. In this section you can find ways to keep yourself, your children, you homes, and your businesses safe.

You can also take a look at crime statistics, recent activity, and crimes that have taken place in your neighborhood. Just go to the Special Services tab on the left and you can take advantage of the tools we've provided on our site.