Neighborhood Watch Job Descriptions
The following definitions are provided to help you decide how you can participate in making
your neighborhood a safer place for you and your neighbors to live.
Section Captain
The section captain has these primary jobs:
 Recruiting individual block captains,
 Providing them with their job description,
 Providing them with a telephone tree sheet and explaining its use.
(This is the initial phase and can be accomplished over a several month period.)
Skills required:
1. Ability to talk with acquaintances and strangers, ability to explain simple instructions.
2. Ability to maintain a list of the block captains in your section and update as necessary.
3. Communicating with the block captains as needed when situations warrant.
Time involved:
Initially - maximum 1 hour per week until at least 50% of blocks are captained, maintenance- 1
to 2 hours per month for communication, re-recruitments if necessary and records maintenance.
Training
Attend at least 6 PAC 2 meetings per year with a time commitment of anywhere from 30 minutes
to 2 hours depending on how long it takes you to accomplish your goal for attending the
meeting. Section Captions meet periodically with the ‘Watch’ coordinator and are encouraged to
help plan and participate in the yearly National Night Out Event.
Block Captain
The captain of each block has the following duties:
1. The block captain contacts neighbors on their block and convinces them to participate in
a ‘telephone tree’ or “email distribution list”.
2. He/she maintains a telephone tree list/email list that contains the name, address,
telephone number and email address, if available, of each telephone tree member. The
maximum number of tree members is 12.
3. When an incident occurs and the block captain has been notified, he assures that the
information (who, what, when, where, weapon) begins to be passed down the list by
calling the first tree member. A follow-up may be necessary if the last person on the list
does not return a call to the block captain to confirm all members have been alerted.
Skills required:
1. Ability to talk with acquaintances and strangers,
2. Ability to explain simple instructions,
3. Ability to maintain a list of telephone tree members and keep contact info up to date.
Time Involved:
Initially a maximum of 1 hour per week until your block telephone tree members have been
contacted and signed up. Thereafter, approximately 10 minutes each time an incident occurs that
needs to be relayed to the block tree members. (This could occur once a month, once a week, or
less often depending on how successful we are of ridding our neighborhood of would be criminal
opportunists. Approximately 5 minutes should cover the time it takes to alert your section
captain of the incident.
Training:
Instructions provided by Section Captain. Attendance of some PAC2 meetings each year to meet
and recognize the Durham Police Department Officers who cover our area and other City/County
Department representatives who handle crime issues.
Telephone Tree Member
A block telephone tree member’s main responsibility is:
 To observe what is going on in the neighborhood. This job description might seem long
but it really is quite simple… you observe what is going on in your area. (You do this all
the time without realizing it anyway.)
 The second responsibility is to pass on information about anything that doesn’t seem
‘right’.
Explanation
We all know what time the mailman delivers the mail and which neighbor hangs out their
laundry or lets the kids in the back yard to play every afternoon. We notice when the UPS
truck stops to deliver a package.
Then there are the events that don’t seem quite right. Let’s say that we know the neighbors
both work days and have mentioned during a conversation over the back fence that they
plan to retire in their home and never move. One day you notice a blue van pull up in their
driveway, go to the back of the house and suddenly you see men carrying their televisions,
stereo, computer and other electronic equipment out the door and loading it in the back of
the van. What do you do? Does this feel right to you? Or you look out your front
window and see a person walking slowly down the street. You don’t recognize them as
someone familiar to the neighborhood and they’ve got a backpack on their back.
As they walk along they are looking into cars parked at the curb and casually checking to
see if the cars doors are locked. Sometimes they reach into the unlocked cars. What do
you do? Does this feel right to you?
Here’s what you do…
Call 911 and tell the operator what you’ve seen. Describe the car, person/persons and
explain what seems wrong or out of place about it. Ask to have an officer sent to the area
(give the address). Please note that you do not have to give your name, address or telephone
number. You can remain anonymous.
Now, call your block captain and tell them what you saw (who, what, when, where and
possibly weapon) and what you did. Yes it’s okay to leave a voice message. (Your block
captain will then make sure that everyone on your block watch gets the information and is
alert to possible trouble. The block captain calls the first person on each side of his tree
below his name and passes this information along. This continues until each person on the
tree has received the information and is aware of what to be alert to. The last person on the
list calls his block captain to confirm that everyone has the information.)
Skills required:
1. Talking to your neighbors,
2. Being comfortable talking on the telephone,
3. Remembering what you’ve just seen.
Time involved: Minutes whenever you’re awake, but only when something seems wrong.
Attend a quarterly section meeting to keep updated on what is threatening your neighborhood’s
security for approximately 1 hour. Attend the once-a-year National Night Out Event if possible,
time approximate 30 minutes),
Training: Meeting with your section captain and coordinator at least twice a year so that you
can have your questions answered and concerns addressed at a semi-annual meeting. Attend at
as many PAC2 meetings as your schedule allows or arrange to get the minutes from the
meetings. Keep a list of City/County department contacts that can solve your problems which
will also be available from your block and section captains.