There's been a lot of concern recently on NextDoor.com due to some recent break-ins. People are worried, busy sharing safety tips, and looking for answers.
The reality is, compared to other places, Roseville is very safe overall. But evil exists and crimes do happen everywhere. What steps can we take to be a bit safer?
SAFETY TIPS
RESEARCH
Research your area, or the area you are thinking of moving to using the tools we have available such as:
- Crimemapping.com
- Megan's Law websites – click here for the one for California.
- City-Data
- My Pinterest Board – SafetyTips – has these and more info for our area.
GET INVOLVED
Get involved in helping your own neighborhood and your community which will lead to an even safer Roseville.
Neighborhood Watch Safety Tips
One of my favorite safety tips is to start a Neighborhood Watch group in your immediate neighborhood. It's easy and Roseville Police Department has plenty of resources to help you with it. They provide free training, brochures, stickers and support to help neighbors help neighbors stay safer.
Once a month or once a quarter, invite your closest neighbors to a neighborhood watch meeting. That usually includes the whole block – the side you live on and across the street from you – if you have the traditional size blocks -including anyone in the alley homes of your side of the block. For those with more windy long blocks that are also quite common here in Roseville, maybe just count off 5-10 homes on either side of you plus 10-20 homes across the street. Bring along some of the free resources from the police department like the emergency phone list, a neighborhood phone tree list, stickers, etc.
You can host meetings inside your home, inside a neighbor's house, outside on a front yard (I've done both), or maybe even at your local park. I don't see why you couldn't even have a meeting at a local eatery like Starbucks (ask them first, of course 😉 ).
Share your names, street address, and phone numbers with each other. If anyone sees anything odd around a neighbor's home, it will now be easy to let your neighbor know, or warn other neighbors to keep their eyes open. Of course, be cautious not to let it turn into a gossip-fest. As Dragnet used to say, “Just the facts…” 🙂
Virtual Neighborhood Watch With NextDoor
If you're on NextDoor.com, you can even create a private group and invite just your nearby neighbors into the group and use that as another way to share information, including the latest updates from the Police Department. Don't get those? They post them on their website and I post them regularly on Facebook at Roseville California Joys as well.
Neighborhood Watch groups can lead to more neighbors becoming friends, more neighbors being aware of each other's home and personal safety, and more neighborhoods adding an extra “shield” of awareness and safety due to all the extra eyes.
You can also contact us at RCONA to get neighborhood watch signs at a discount and the city of Roseville will post them on your street for free – a great crime deterrent as well!
Neighborhood Associations
Speaking of RCONA, our city is divided into 42 neighborhoods. RCONA, the Roseville Coalition of Neighborhood Associations, is the “parent” group that oversees and assists all the associations. It is made up of representatives from each of the active associations. According to the RCONA website, “Volunteers participating in their Neighborhood Association work to improve their neighborhoods and maintain a high quality of life. Citizens and staff work together on a variety of projects such as crime prevention, park development, resolution of development related issues, neighborhood team building and much more.”
Some are very active, some less so, but all give you an avenue to share important information back and forth and usually have police officers and/or firefighters and sometimes even others attend the meeting and share information and safety tips about what's happening in YOUR neck of the woods.
Most also usually get together in their neighborhoods for the annual National Night Out. National Night Out (NNO for short) is a time to celebrate neighbors and neighborhoods and have fun at a home or local park and get to know each other a bit better.
Join your local Neighborhood Association or, if yours isn't yet active, start one up. RCONA will be glad to give you plenty of help in the process. Check RCONA.org for information about what neighborhood association you are in, and contact info for help getting started. The active ones have websites. Plus many are on Facebook such as Woodcreek Oaks, Cherry Glen, Folsom, Fiddyment, Westpark, Blue Oaks, and more.
If your neighborhood isn't currently active, check to see if there is a neighborhood Facebook group or page with local information, like the one I have at Junction West. That could be a big help for your efforts.
CITY ALERTS
Sign up for the regular alerts and emails from the City of Roseville and its various offices starting with the Police Department. At the bare minimum, get on the crime alert list via the county to get emergency warnings and alerts. Next, sign up for the police update digests that discuss recent criminal activities, trends, and sometimes safety tips. You might also want to look through the various other options including park and recreation activities and so much more. 🙂
ROSEVILLE CALIFORNIA JOYS
Be sure to also LIKE my Facebook page, RosevilleCaliforniaJoys as I share daily updates that include police updates, fun happenings around the city, neighborhood and home safety tips, info and so much more. 😉
You might like to start out by clicking here to see a fascinating story from KGW.com who interviewed 86 BAD GUYS to see their tips and tricks for staying safer.
GREAT PLACE TO LIVE
Roseville is a great place to live. According to all reports I've heard and seen, overall it's a very safe place. But we can always be safer by being on good terms with our neighbors and keeping an eye out for our neighborhood safety.
The more and better we know our neighbors, the more power we have in our neighborhoods to be alert, aware, and safer.
