Mission Statement:

Creating trust and solidarity between the Sheriff’s Office and the Community one neighborhood at a time.

The primary steps of the Sheriff’s Neighborhood Awareness Program (SNAP) Program will be to:

 Gather Information

• Build Skills, Provide Presentations & Tools
• Organize and Form Groups
• Meetings
• Trainings
• Conduct Activities

 We will discuss each one of these steps and how they directly relate to SNAP.

GATHER INFORMATION:

The first phase of SNAP will be to gather information about what current Neighborhood Watch groups or opportunities exist, conduct an overview of the count and evaluate the citizens needs and concerns.

BUILD SKILLS, PROVIDE PRESENTATIONS & TOOLS:

In the past, many law enforcement officers working with Watch groups, and the volunteers themselves, lacked formal training in the various aspects of working with such groups, and had to develop their own resources and knowledge base. To overcome this problem the Sheriff’s Office will provide Squad Leaders and Officers with a “train the trainer” curriculum to assist them as leaders in their neighborhoods.  They will also be provided with curriculums to get them started on their first six (6) months worth of neighborhood meetings.

 These curriculums are:

 Curriculum for Squad Leaders:

• V.I.P. Orientation – 4 hours
• Planning Effective Meetings – 30 minutes to 1 hour
  • This course on how to plan and conduct effective meetings covers logistics, agenda, staying on track, and handling disagreements
  • Creating Awareness and Maintaining Momentum – 30 minutes to 1 hour
    • This course features a wealth of information on recruiting new volunteers and creating an awareness of the Neighborhood Watch program. The presentation addresses various types of leadership styles and the roles that comprise Neighborhood Watch.

Curriculum for First Six (6) Local Neighborhood Meetings:

1.  Teamwork

•  
  • The teamwork curriculum is designed to assist citizens with fundamentals on working together to achieve common goals. Reaching consensus and cooperating with others are featured topics of this course.

2.  Strategic Planning

• In this course, group members will learn the process of strategic planning, how to conduct neighborhood assessments and prioritize initiatives, and how to build realistic and actionable goals.

3.  Forming Successful Partnerships

• In this course, volunteers will learn skills that they can utilize to reach out to other civic, social and service organizations in an effort to expand their partnership activities. 

4.  Observation Skills

• Observation skills teaches citizens what to observe, how to observe, and pointers for observing individuals and their surroundings

5.  Reporting Suspicious Activities

• Reporting Suspicious Activities presents information on how to properly report, as well as what to report and when

6.  Target Hardening

• Target Hardening teaches a specific methodology on how to evaluate homes for security, and general information on how to make our neighborhoods safer and more secure.

Organize and Form Groups

This step is to organize and form the local SNAP neighborhood groups.  Key elements in this step include:

• Recruitment
  • Phase One of this will be the Public Meeting Scheduled for Tuesday, March 15th at McGee Park (see attached flyer)
• Selection
  • Squad Leaders will be selected from Neighborhoods that are willing and ready to begin with the SNAP Program
  • Backgrounds will be completed in order for the first phase of SNAP Squad Leaders to begin Training
•  Leadership
• • The first phase of the SNAP Program will be for a MAXIMUM of six (6) Neighborhoods to begin the process.  To do this we will need at least two (2) Squad Leaders from EACH Neighborhood and at least three (3) San Juan County Deputies to assist.

Meetings

This step in the SNAP initiative is to be able to plan and conduct all types of meetings that will help our volunteers increase their knowledge or skills and help build the SNAP organizations.  During this portion of the plan, deputies will be assigned to specific neighborhoods to assist local SNAP meetings get started and grow.

Trainings

 A key component to the success of the Sheriff’s Neighborhood Awareness Program initiative will be ongoing training.  This will require the assistance of Deputies within the Sheriff’s Office to bring specific training programs to their local SNAP meetings.

  Conduct Activities

The final step in the SNAP plan is to develop, plan and conduct ongoing activities in order to sustain and enhance SNAP initiatives.  These activities can vary in topic and can include (but are not limited to) crime reduction, expanding partnerships, addressing neighborhood disorder issues, and improving the quality of life in local San Juan County neighborhoods.

If you are interested in becoming a Squad Leader (Block Leader) for your Neighborhood please click here to download an application.  Or contact:

Incomplete applications will not be considered.

For additional information, please contact the Community Relations Division at (505) 334-6107.