& Virtual Citizens on Patrol (VCOP)

How to Get an Operation Crime Watch Sign in your neighborhood (pdf):

1. Identify a resident of your block who will serve a contact person to Operation Crime Watch Liaisons and to your respective police district.
2. All residents on the block should apply for crime watch numbers. The application can be filled out online at:
   http://www.baltimorecity.gov/crime/crimeWatchNumber.php OR email your name, address, phone number, police district, and neighborhood association affiliation (not required) to operationcrimewatch@baltimorecity.gov
   OR Call (443) 984-2371 / 2372 with the above information. If you leave a message please spell your first and last name as well as your street name.
3. Submit application to Operation Crime Watch
4. The number of Crime Watch Numbers on your block will be verified by the Baltimore Police Department.
5. Schedule a meeting with the block representative and an OCW Liaison to determine sign placement.
6. The Mayor’s Office on Criminal Justice will inform the block representative when the signs will be erected by the Department of Transportation.
   
   **Please note: This process is subject to change and can be adapted to fit the particular needs of a given block.

Person Desription Form (Word Doc) • Vehicle Description Form (Word Doc)

Operation Crime Watch was launched in 2003 by Mayor Martin O’Malley to build neighborhood-based crime prevention strategies including block watch and citizens-on-patrol (COP) programs. It is implemented by the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhoods in close partnership with the Community Affairs Unit of the Baltimore Police Department.

The initial momentum for the program came from a Baltimore City Council resolution passed in the Spring of 2002 calling for the Mayor and Police Commissioner to establish an organization to support existing and create new citizen-on-patrol programs. Within the Council there was a strong desire to take the experience of Baltimore’s Northwest Citizens Patrol, established in 1982, and replicate it across all of Baltimore. Additionally, the City Council liked what has happened in Philadelphia with its Town Watch program. Philadelphia’s Town Watch program is now ten years old and has sixteen thousand volunteers engaged in block watch and COP initiatives.

The concept behind a watch program is simple: the police need additional eyes and ears to help them. That help comes from citizens who literally look out for each other as block watchers who report suspicious activity or as citizens in a car or on foot or bicycle traveling through their community.

The Dawson family tragedy in October 2002 added a serious challenge to the creation of a Baltimore Crime Watch program. The deaths of the seven family members in East Baltimore sent a chilling message to many in Baltimore. The fear of retaliation became real. People were afraid to call the emergency 9-1-1 number as citizens were afraid to have the responding patrol car identify them as the one who called the police. Yet contacting the police and building a working relationship with them are critical to the success of a block watch program. Something had to be done to break the stranglehold of fear. Operation Crime Watch is breaking down that fear.

Operation Crime Watch provides training to inform Baltimore citizens of the change to the 9-1-1 system that allows a caller to be anonymous to the responding patrol car. By using a Crime Watch number when calling 9-1-1 the responding police patrol car does not know the location of the caller, only the location of the incident which prompted the call. Operation Crime Watch works with the neighborhood services officers in each of the nine police districts to sign up citizens to receive Crime Watch (also known as “block watch”) numbers. As of January, 2005 more than 5,000 citizens have signed up for Crime Watch numbers.

In addition to promoting Crime Watch numbers, Operation Crime Watch uses an approach based on block organizing to create block watch networks that supports crime prevention activities on a neighborhood level. These networks are supported to adopt Operation Identification (engraving your valuables with your driver’s license number), create neighborhood network maps to connect residents with their neighbors, identify potential walk-around opportunities (dog walkers or baby stroller groups) and communicate regularly with the police at the district level through calls to the community relations officers of the district and through attending the monthly district community affairs council meetings. As the number and strength of neighborhood block watch groups increase, volunteers are recruited for COPs from the growing number of block watchers.

To get more involved with Operation Crime Watch activities, join the many citizens from the Southeastern District who already regularly attend the monthly Southeastern Police Community Relations Council. To receive a Crime Watch number, call Officer Mel Penn at (410) 637-8848.

Virtual Citizens on Patrol (VCOP)
Operation Crime Watch, in cooperation with the Baltimore Police Department, is recruiting volunteers to monitor closed circuit television cameras that are being installed throughout Baltimore. Citizens who volunteer will become Virtual Citizens on Patrol (VCOP), joining the fight to take their streets back and protect fellow neighbors through yet another resource.

VCOP will launch in the Southeastern Police District where thirty cameras have been strategically placed on Monument, Madison, and McElderry Streets in an area spanning from Chester Street to Highland Avenue. Starting July 1, images from these cameras will transmit to monitors located inside the Southeastern Police District. These monitors will reside beside the desk sergeant in the same vicinity as the Greektown monitors.

Retired police officers recruited specifically for the VCOP program will train, schedule, and follow up with VCOP volunteers. These officers will often be present at the monitoring site during peak hours of criminal activity. Major Kundrat has noted that peak times for his district are as follows: Wednesday thru Sunday, 6pm - 2am.
Operation Crime Watch is looking to recruit volunteers for two-hour shifts emphasizing these peak times.

If you would like to get involved, fill out the VCOP application with your availability and return it ocw@baltimorecity.gov or Operation Crime Watch, Mayor's Office of Neighborhoods, Room 336, City Hall, 100 N. Holliday Street, Baltimore, MD 21202. The police will do a simple, criminal background check using your name, date-of-birth and address before you are contacted. Right now we are asking for a commitment of two hours a month from a volunteer.

Note: If you do not want to volunteer in your police district, future VCOP opportunities in other districts will be available. There is a place on the application to reference this issue.