Courtesy Police Officer

nope

We're still developer controlled but our dues are used for the budget and expenses. We have $30K budgeted for the expense. 2016 we paid $24K for this. From my understanding from the MC, they do periodic patrols (3 days a week I think) for approximately 4 hours each time.

I wouldn't pay for it but hey if that's what people want... Police should be going through anyways. We do have churches here that hire police for traffic control during their service times. Otherwise, a neighborhood watch should do.

We have two. Don't know if it's common, but they were hired just before I moved to my community. The original intent was to help address all the inoperable, expired plate cars littering the neighborhood, but over time, it's evolved to address other parking issues (our CCRs adopt city/county rules on traffic and parking as our own). They also help address certain disputes between neighbors if there could be a criminal issue.

Our officers will even swing by one's townhouse if you're out of town just to make sure there's no monkey business going on (to date, I think I'm the only one who calls with that request).

Since it's a courtesy thing, we don't necessarily have them come through every day and our officers also split up their time, so I think it's a great investment and our community really likes the service.

I'm not sure how many miles of streets we have. We had about 700 homes in 2016. I assume we're paying some sort of off duty rate for service.

You can fix that by reminding homeowners of what the detective will and won't do (double-check the contract). For example, if it's not a 24-7 service, homeowners should be told that from the start and to always call 911 in case of emergency.

As long as you're reviewing the contract, you may want to tweak it depending on your community's needs - after a year, take another look and tweak it again, as needed.

Allum

Many on here would advise against an HOA sponsored Neighborhood Watch. Now if some folks want to get together and do such, fine. Just do not have the HOA associated in any way with them even to the point of not allowing them to meet in a clubhouse.

I did a search and found a few snippets

"So make it understood that there is NO funding between the neighborhood watch and the HOA. The funding and operation of the neighborhood watch is on it's own, has it's own volunteers, and does NOT enforce any of the HOA's rules. It's purpose is to solely report/prevent crime and call the police."

Our neighborhood watch isn't funded. It's volunteers. We're not doing security and have instructed all volunteers on who to contact if they see something. In essence, we just want neighbors to watch out for crime. See something Say something type situation. We're registered with the city as {Neighborhood} Neighborhood Watch.

Maybe this is why we have the courtesy officer expense.

We had a sheriff deputy move in and rent a home. It was right near the entrance. So the car was pretty much in plain site entering the neighborhood. (Only 1 way in/out). People ASSUMED the police car there would prevent crime and felt like someone was there with law enforcement abilities.

This turns out NOT to be the case. She was a County officer and NOT our city. Plus we had a huge rash of mailbox break ins. Of which the car was parked about 100 yards away. That officer? She got her mail stolen. (Child support checks). I was the one who ended up handling the situation. Had to get the Postal Inspectors involved.

So don't assume having a police car makes that much of an effect. She turned out not to be what was advertised on the car. Some police positions aren't for response to crime. A detective doing drive through? Seems a bit suspect considering the hierarchy of the police.

Are you a private gated community?

Our association is still developer controlled. The neighborhood watch was previously established and information was shared at meetings in the past. We have had police reps come to our annual meetings to share information. I know meetings have happened in the neighborhood. It's not association sponsored however. Owners set it up outside of the association directly with the police.

No real need because we are gated, but shouldn't the lower end non gated community HOA's already be patrolled like any other neighborhood? Just like the cops would patrol certain areas I would figure all area's are covered at some point... maybe I'm wrong?

I'll be sure to keep that in mind. Thanks