Oakville residents have called for the reactivation of Neighbourhood Watch to help curb rising crime, according to the Oakville Community Association (OCA).
The OCA has responded, with their Board of Directors passing a motion to take all necessary steps to establish a functional Neighbourhood Watch Program throughout Oakville.
According to Michael Reid, President of OCA, "It is our initial goal to have a Neighbourhood Watch presence in all 7 Wards in Oakville with 1000 homes in each Ward participating and having neighbourhood watch stickers."
As the initial step, OCA concluded that this program is required as evidenced by the comments of residents, the increase in car thefts and home break-ins, and the recent article by the BBC entitled "How Canada became a car theft capital of the world."
OCA is now obtaining more input from residents and gauging the interest of residents as step two. In addition, they put a call out to residents through a post on Facebook from July 9, 2024, asking for people to step up and volunteer to be "neighbourhood captains."
"This type of program will bring communities and neighbourhoods closer together or back together at a time when a sense of community has been lacking in Oakville," said Reid.
The association says that on the first day, more than 10 residents expressed an interest in being a captain.
The third step for OCA will be to have a meeting with all of the captains, and then have the captains approach their neighbours about the program. In addition, OCA will be working on getting funding to have stickers made that can be distributed to residents to put in the windows of their houses and/or businesses.
OCA says they hope to work with all stakeholders including Halton Regional Police, the Halton Police Services Board, Crime Stoppers of Halton, and all local Residents’ Associations.
The OCA is asking anyone interested in getting involved to contact [email protected].