Like many neighborhoods, mine has a neighborhood watch program. It started out, as many do, as a modest effort after there had been some burglaries in the area. A few neighbors keeping an eye on the areas around their homes, with the thought being that if I watch your place, you'll keep an eye on mine. The meetings stopped a while back, but the "keeping an eye out" attitude has stuck around, recently helping in the arrest of a couple of burglars on my street.

The Rockford Police Department knows how valuable an organized and informed neighborhood watch can be, which brings me to my overall point: The Citizens Police Academy can help you get your neighborhood watch up, running, and effective.

From the Rockford Police Department's press release:

The Rockford Police Department is currently accepting applications for its
upcoming Citizens Police Academy. The academy will run every Wednesday from 2:00– 4:00pm from September 16, 2015 through October 28, 2015 at the Public Safety Building located at 420 West State Street.

The mission of the Citizens Police Academy is to build cooperative relationships between
citizens and the police through training and education. The police academy produces a
network of informed citizens who can return to their neighborhoods to organize, encourage
and mobilize others, and to partner with police in reducing crime in Rockford.

The success of the Citizens Police Academy has led to the formation of the Citizens Assisting Police (CAP) volunteer program in 2010 and has contributed to more than 9,000 hours of volunteer service to the Rockford Police Department. Volunteers can be an important part of any organization and are proven to be a valuable asset to law enforcement agencies. Volunteers help to increase police responsiveness, service delivery, information input, and they provide new program opportunities. In addition, volunteers can bring new skills and expertise to the job and prompt new enthusiasm.

Since the academy’s inception in 2009, the Rockford Police Department has trained more
than 200 citizens and has 32 active police volunteers. 

For more information and to print out an application go to http://www.rockfordil.gov/police. Applications can also be obtained at the Public Safety Building.

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