October is Crime Prevention Month

Published on September 29, 2025

When it comes to the safety of your family and your neighborhood, a combined team effort with your community is the best way to go. Working with your neighbors, you can help prevent crime and create a safer community. We are sharing neighborhood safety tips.

Get to Know Your Neighbors

The first thing you can do to improve your neighborhood safety is to simply get to know your immediate neighbors. Make sure to share contact information. Knowing your neighbors and their routines can be beneficial to helping you all watch out for each other. For example, if you know approximately when your neighbors go to work and come home, what friends or family are often around, you can better assist with identifying any suspicious activity around their home (and yours). Merely being aware of who is in your neighborhood goes a long way to help keep everyone safe. If something is out of the ordinary, contact each other to check in.

Install a Visible Home Security System

Burglars are less likely to break into homes with visible security systems. Protect your home and encourage neighbors to do the same by installing a home security system. If your security system includes motion-activity lighting or an alarm it can further help deter intruders.

Install a Home Security Camera and Register with the Voluntary Security Camera Registration

Security cameras can provide critical information to help solve crimes in our community. Please consider partnering with the Albany Police Department by registering your security camera with us. Registration is voluntary and there is no cost associated with registration. Registering your information does not provide the Albany Police Department with direct access to your camera and you may delete your registration at any time. Your personal information will be kept confidential by the Police Department and will only be used by law enforcement personnel if there is a criminal incident in your neighborhood or in the vicinity of your security camera. Please visit www.albanyca.gov/crime-prevention for more information and to register.

Maintain Appearances

Overgrown yards provide hiding spaces for burglars and create the appearance that no one is around which can make your home an easy target. Maintain your yard and encourage neighbors to do the same to show potential criminals that people are active in the community and to reduce hiding spots.

Teach Your Children Safety Tips

For parents, keeping your home and neighborhood secure is one thing, but you can also take a few steps to keep your kids and your neighbors’ kids safe. If you’re new to the neighborhood, walk around with your kids to help them to be familiar with the area. You can also set boundaries for where they can go, giving them some freedom to explore within reason.

Spend Time Outside in Your Neighborhood

If a lot of people are outside, the neighborhood is likely to be less inviting to burglars as there are more people to see them, especially as most burglaries occur during the day. Spending time outside is also a great way to get to know your neighbors. Working in the yard, walking your dogs, organizing walks, or the kids playing outside can help everyone get to know each other, show potential burglars the community is active, and keep an eye out collectively for suspicious activity.

Let Your Neighbors Know When You Go Out of Town

Your home is more vulnerable when you aren’t there, so if you’re heading out of town, let your neighbors know. Not only can they keep an eye on your home, but they can help prevent a break-in by keeping up appearances such as collecting the mail.

 Improving your neighborhood security doesn’t require significant time investments. Working together as a team can create a safe, secure and wonderful place to live. For more crime prevention tips, visit www.albanyca.gov/crime-prevention.