NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH
were. I walked to school, was part of the
local youth club and played sport. All of these
activities lead to natural interaction within my
local community. It’s that natural interaction,
that local network and knowledge that is an
essential component to making Neighbourhood
Watch a success.
So let’s fast track 40 years, what have we got
today? I don’t have a local store I frequent
anymore. I’ve done a lot of driving of my kids to
and from school and sports events. I drive to the
gym to exercise! Whilst I pride myself on knowing
almost everyone in my street by sight and many
by name, I very rarely walk the local streets.
We are a society reliant on the car. We
drive everywhere. Departing and returning
from our internal garages, we live in gated
communities, we don’t have to see, speak or
wave to anyone in our street if we don’t want
to. To keep in touch with friends I send a text
or use Facebook, Instagram or Messenger or
even the good old email, I don’t Twitter. I’m a
typical statistic, a 40-something female, online
communicator. It’s fun, quick and easy.
No one can ignore the enormous effect
advancing technology has had and will
continue to have on the makeup of our family
and community communication structure.
Where can you go these days to escape the
mobile phone? Our obsession with being on
our phones is all consuming. I don’t read the
paper anymore, I read the news online. I love
Google, how did I live without it? (My husband
feels he has now become redundant – no more
questions to ponder). I have instant access
to anything I want to know. Mobile phones
are banned from meal times in my home, so
we can actually converse with one another.
I notice that my teenagers never really plan
anything in detail in advance, no need, it’s all
instant communication. I am the same, guilty
as charged!
Neighbourhood Watch has developed online,
it has had to, to stay relevant. We have had
to advance our crime prevention messaging
delivery and knowledge to stay current. Being
safe in your own home is not all we have to
think about. I can get burgled online! If you
are on-line, then you could also be a sitting
target to new types of crime. Identity theft,
relationship scams, lotteries scams, business
scams – in fact there are hundreds of scams
we probably don’t even know about yet.
We are constantly developing and updating
our website information to share quality
examples and knowledge through both
traditional communication methods and online
methods. You can join a Neighbourhood Watch
group online. Whether engaging with your
geographical community or your community of
interest – it’s fast and efficient – but it begs the
question, is it enough?
It seems life is so much more fast-paced with
a drive for instant gratification. We need
instant access to almost everything because
we are so time poor. So we develop a greater
reliance on the technology that can give us
what we require. But are we forgetting the
most important thing here, it’s not about the
technology, it’s about people, people, people.
There are some sobering lessons to be
learned from our consuming dependency on
technology. None closer to home for me than
the 2011 Christchurch earthquake. All forms of
technological communication failed. In survival
mode, people turned to people for help. It
was the traditional Neighbourhood Watch
(Neighbourhood Support in New Zealand)
phone tree system that came to the fore,
neighbours knew neighbours and they knew
who to check on.
Neighbourhood Watch is about creating
communities that are safe and vibrant. Are we
relevant? Absolutely. Neighbourhood Wa э