Private Police

Private police advantage to neighbourhood watches

Residential patrols are small groups of professional security guards who patrol the neighbourhoods, look for signs of crime, help the residents if necessary and share information with the police. They work similar to neighbourhood watches but unlike the latter, they are carried out by private security firms and have been shown to be a much better crime deterrence than small groups consisting of volunteers.

The main benefit of residential patrols are of course reduced crime rates because the security guards who are patrolling the neighbourhood dramatically increase the risk for the criminals being caught at action and handed over to the police. This has been shown to be a highly effective crime prevention and neighbourhoods that have been using this service is much safer than those that exclusively rely on occasional police patrols and neighbourhood watches.

Residential patrols, on the other hand, provide a non-stop guard presence. And unlike neighbourhood watches, residential patrols consist of trained professionals who are instantly recognised by their uniforms. Seeing uniformed security guards improves both the perceived and actual safety. This is due to the fact that the uniform sends the criminals a signal that they are being watched by trained professionals rather than a small group of "ordinary" residents who do not have the experience or the necessary knowledge to handle crime when being faced with it.

Another major advantage of residential patrols over neighbourhood watches is the fact that they take a great weight off the residents' shoulders. Although just about all residents want to make their streets safer, organising a residents' patrol and establish a constant presence is not an easy job. Everyone has lots of responsibilities and finding enough time to patrol the streets is a serious problem for most residents. The burden of neighbourhood watches therefore often fall on a few individuals who are having difficulties covering the entire neighbourhood 24 hours a day effectively.

Since residential patrols involve a constant presence of security guards, they offer an immediate response, reaching you or your neighbour a lot faster than the police. This significantly increases your personal and your property's safety because residential patrols do not only foresee physical presence of the guards, but they also foresee help to the residents if necessary. The guards do not carry weapons, but they are trained to handle any threat to your personal or property's safety.

• Given that residential patrols are provided by private security firms, the question occurs how much does such service cost
• The cost of residential patrols depends on the extent of the service and the amount of guards in the field, but it is a lot less expensive than you may think. This is due to the fact that the cost of residential patrols is usually divided among the households because after all, reduced crime rates and improved safety on the streets are in everyone's interest.