Healthy Development Measurement Toolkit

Indicator SC.2.b Active neighborhood watch groups

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Data Source

Data provided by the San Francisco Safety Awareness for Everyone (SAFE), Inc.

Map and table prepared by City and County of San Francisco, Department of Public Health, Environmental Health Section using ArcGIS software.

Table data is presented by planning neighborhood. Planning neighborhoods are larger geographic areas than census tracts. SFDPH used ArcGIS software and a 'centroids within' methodology to convert census blocks to geographic mean center points. We then assigned census blocks to planning neighborhoods based on the spatial location of those geographic mean center points and calculated the planning neighborhood totals for the table.

Detailed information regarding geographic units of analysis, their definitions, and their boundaries can be found in the HDMT at the following links:

http://www.thehdmt.org/etc/Geographic_Units_of_Analysis.pdf

http://www.thehdmt.org/data_map_methods.php

Explanation and Limitations

This indicator represents the number of active neighborhood watch groups affiliated with San Francisco Safety Awareness for Everyone (SAFE), Inc as of August 2008. SAFE is a San Francisco-based non-profit organization that provides assistance in the organizing of neighborhood watch groups, free crime prevention information and materials, and invitations to police officers and/or representatives from other City departments to watch meetings to address residents' particular concerns. More information is available at: www.sfsafe.org

SAFE provided SFDPH the block level addresses of neighborhood watch group leaders to protect the identity of the leaders. SFDPH selected the mid-block level address as the address to be mapped in the neighborhood to reflect the block-level nature of the neighborhood watch groups.

According to the National Crime Prevention Council, Neighborhood Watch was launched in 1972 and "counts on citizens to organize themselves and work with law enforcement to keep a trained eye and ear on their communities, while demonstrating their presence at all times of day and night." (Accessed on September 12, 2008: http://www.ncpc.org/topics/neighborhood-watch)

Because neighborhood watch groups promote communication and collaboration between neighbors with the goal of making their neighborhood safer, neighborhood watch groups can serve as an indicator of both public safety and social cohesion (see Objective SC.1). The organization of a neighborhood watch group depends upon motivated individuals that are able to devote time to planning, coordination and implementation of meetings and activities. It is not possible to tell from this indicator who was responsible for organizing the neighborhood watch group or how involved groups' members were. Participation in a neighborhood watch group is voluntary.

The number of neighborhood watch groups is one of many possible indicators of public safety and social cohesion within a neighborhood. Taken alone, the existence of a neighborhood watch group does not necessarily mean that a neighborhood is safe or socially cohesive. Similarly, it is possible for a neighborhood to be safe or socially cohesive even if there is no neighborhood watch group organized there.

In general, neighborhood-level indicators may obscure ethnic, class, or other differences among neighborhood populations. For example, neighborhood watch groups may indicate good perceived safety or social cohesion among some groups, but others may not be able to participate or may choose not to participate for a variety of reasons, such as the language(s) spoken, time of day, distrust of police, perceived personal safety or racism among neighbors, or physical accessibility. Thus social cohesion may be advanced for some groups while others may feel excluded.

Neighborhood safety and social cohesion are not time-static concepts. Residents moving into and out of a neighborhood can impact the social dynamics among neighbors as well as the momentum behind neighborhood watch coordination. While this indicator provides a snapshot of neighborhood watch groups in San Francisco at a specific time, it does not provide any information about long-term trends in the frequency and locations of neighborhood watches. Additionally, there may be other neighborhood watch groups in San Francisco that are unaffiliated with SAFE that are not included in this data.

Why is this a Community Health Indicator?

Neighborhood watch programs have been associated with increased surveillance and reporting of crimes, reduced opportunities for crime, and increased informal social control and social cohesion, all of which have been associated with reductions in crime at the neighborhood level.^a,b Decreasing the level of crime can positively impact levels of physical activity and social cohesion and their associated physical and mental health outcomes. In a large scale study involving over 600,000 residents in Sweden, the rate of violent crime in an individual’s neighborhood predicted their risk for coronary heart disease, regardless of individual demographic and socioeconomic measures.^c