Neighborhood means community, and the concepts behind both terms are bigger than place. Neighborly sentiment and conduct keep the streets near your home feeling safe and welcoming. New apps and devices now pair community tips with official data and stronger privacy and security defaults, making it easier to put neighborliness to work for public safety.
While the online tools are new, neighborhood crime watches aren’t. Neighbor-driven efforts led to formalized neighborhood crime prevention, and eventually to the formation of the National Neighborhood Watch. You probably know the logo — an ominous silhouette peering out between hat brim and upturned lapel. Since then, community crime prevention has grown alongside technology. Today, neighborhood safety resources leverage publicly available crime data, the power of crowdsourcing, and timely indicators from cities. National figures show broad declines in violent crime alongside continued concerns about property offenses: the FBI reports that in 2023 violent crime fell 6.1% and murder fell 13.2%, while motor vehicle theft rose about 11%. City-sample tracking into 2025 indicates homicide and several other violent offenses continued to fall in many large U.S. cities, with vehicle theft easing from 2023 peaks.
Whether you are looking to move, are in the process of moving, or are well-established in your cul-de-sac, tapping into neighborly resources can help you understand — and actively improve — local safety. The best online tools to monitor nearby crime combine civilian tips, news reports, and government data with up-to-date reports from local authorities; for a fuller picture that includes incidents not reported to police, consider national victimization surveys alongside offense data.
The best neighborhood safety tools for when you are:
… exploring new neighborhoods
You know relocating is on the horizon, but none of the specifics are nailed down. At this point, you’re probably curious about the crime statistics for the various neighborhoods you’re looking at, as well as all the other elements that go into a positive community experience: schools, weather, the neighbors themselves. All of the above will affect your quality of life as well as your home’s resale value. Real estate websites like Trulia include some of these highlights, but the following resources provide a better drill-down and can be cross-checked with recent FBI releases and your local police dashboards.
- AreaVibes — The stated goal of AreaVibes is “to help you find the best places to live in America.” AreaVibes grades cities and neighborhoods based on key metrics like amenities, cost of living, crime rates, education, employment, housing, and weather. Just search a state, city, neighborhood, or address to find how it scores on each metric (from A+ to F) which ladder up to a total Livability Score, from one to 100. With over 35,000 cities and neighborhoods scored, AreaVibes allows you to compare the destinations on your list with nearby and national averages. Custom search function allows you to pinpoint the crimes that concern you most.
- NeighborhoodScout — This neighborhood search engine is used by not only homeowners, but by real estate professionals looking to spot opportunities and assess risk. NeighborhoodScout’s patented algorithms produce sophisticated safety and lifestyle profiles for neighborhoods and cities, making it a particularly great resource for those in the early stages of house hunting. Adjust your search to match your lifestyle and safety priorities. And if you find a great neighborhood but the location ultimately doesn’t work? NeighborhoodScout can point you to similarly profiled neighborhoods. Note that while most of the site is free to use, some reports require payment.
- Reports — For a snapshot of any city, check out Moving.com’s annually updated report, which combines crime statistics with demographics, school quality information, cost of living estimates, and climate data from all the top sources: the U.S. Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor, the IRS, the FBI, the NOAA, and local police departments.
… moving to a new neighborhood
You have your new address memorized and the closing date is circled three times on your calendar. Before getting to this point, you likely already did your due diligence to check on the safety of your new home. In fact, you probably had it professionally checked, twice — first by the inspector, then by the appraiser.
If only your new neighborhood could be sent through the same process. Just like you should know if the roof leaks or the sewer line is clogged, you should know about the crime in your neighborhood.
Learning about your area’s safety levels after you’ve already decided to move doesn’t have to be a passive education. Safeguard your home in response to the particular high risks of your neighborhood with security devices, then use those devices to document suspicious behavior and share footage with neighbors and authorities, consistent with platform policies and local law.
- SpotCrime — Monitor local crime with the SpotCrime map. This service compiles reports from law enforcement agencies and news sources with user tips, thanks to its anonymous reporting system. All incidents are charted on the Crime Map with informative icons, giving you safety information at a glance. To stay in the know, sign up for SpotCrime alerts sent to you via your preferred platform: Facebook, Twitter, or email. If you don’t find your city, check back soon — new locations are still being added.
- CrimeMapping — If you are concerned that user-reported tips may skew crime data, check out CrimeMapping. While other sites aggregate crime reports from various sources (including “scraping” data from other residential crime sites), CrimeMapping relies exclusively on police-reported crimes from police department partners. While the CrimeMapping approach to data ensures greater accuracy, it also restricts the availability of data. Only the reports of subscribed agencies make it onto the site. Still, if you are interested in an official look at local crime, CrimeMapping allows you to conduct searches by address, landmark, or ZIP code, or by police agency. You can also set custom crime alerts to keep you in the know about designated regions and types of crime.
… settled in your home
You may be well-established in your home, but no neighborhood is stagnant. As larger trends shift — the economy, employment rates — so too does your neighborhood’s makeup. Perhaps the most powerful, proactive gesture you can make in your community is keeping up good rapport with your neighbors. According to national surveys such as the National Survey of Children’s Health, individuals who report that people in their neighborhood help each other out are more likely to live in safe neighborhoods, a finding supported by public health guidance that highlights social connectedness as a protective factor. It doesn’t hurt that if your neighbors know you, your family, and your vehicles, they are more likely to notice if something out of the ordinary is happening on your property.
That community feeling is alive in online neighborhood groups, which help you both monitor and support local security. Crime watch technology — like interactive maps and customized alerts — has advanced well beyond the “keep your eyes peeled” directive of the original Neighborhood Watch, and today’s equivalents inherit those early aims while adding clearer privacy controls. Nextdoor operates verified public agency accounts for official updates, and Ring’s Neighbors platform shifted in 2024 to remove in-app police video requests in favor of voluntary resident sharing and standard legal processes.
- Nextdoor — This private social network allows members to share reports of suspicious activity and safety concerns, alongside posts about block parties, garage sales, and that strange new weed that’s taking over the sidewalk. Because members can only belong to one neighborhood at a time, you’re assured that you’re communicating only with those living nearby. Many police and fire departments maintain verified public agency accounts to broadcast alerts and engage residents. Nextdoor is an invaluable resource for recent homebuyers, though its membership requirements make it impossible to use as a resource to field potential neighborhoods.
- The Neighbors App by Ring — This app-based neighborhood watch program comes from Ring, the home automation company snapped up by Amazon . Ring is synonymous with its video doorbell — a popular smart doorbell on the market. You don’t have to own Ring products in order to use the app, which combines reports from neighbors and officials to alert you of suspicious activities and crime. In 2024, Ring removed the in-app Request for Assistance tool, so police can no longer request videos directly in Neighbors; agencies can still post public safety updates, and any video sharing occurs voluntarily by residents or via legal process and emergency exceptions.
- National Sex Offender Registry — The National Sex Offender Public Website (NSOPW) is a public, federated search portal that queries state, territorial, and tribal public registries in real time. You can search by offender’s name or by location and radius to check the vicinity of not only your home but other places your family frequents, like schools, parks, and shopping centers. NSOPW displays what jurisdictions choose to publish; behind the scenes, federal rules clarified in 2022 expanded the information registries collect, though public display varies by jurisdiction. If you’d like to know when registered sex offenders move in or out of your neighborhood, check out Family Watchdog, which sends alerts relevant to the locations you designate.
- CrimeReports — CrimeReports has been retired in many areas as agencies have moved to other mapping platforms or their own dashboards. If your jurisdiction still lists CrimeReports, you can search recent criminal activity by area or law enforcement agency or by type of crime and set alerts. You can also register your security camera with participating programs where offered so police may contact you after an incident to check relevant footage.
