Monmouth County Sheriff Shaun Golden hosted the National Sheriffs' Association two-day Neighborhood Watch Training Program at the Monmouth County Police Academy on June 7th and 8th. Twenty-nine law enforcement personnel and civilian Neighborhood Watch volunteers from seventeen communities attended the training. The course instructors were Evie Cahalen, a retired commander with the Montgomery County, Maryland, Police Department and Roger Thomson, a retired detective sergeant with the Montgomery County, Maryland, Police Department, both with long time experience with the National Neighborhood Watch program.

The first day of training included a review of the Neighborhood Watch Toolkit - a complete and thorough guide with support materials to establish and maintain a Neighborhood Watch program in communities, a curriculum overview and history, Law Enforcement and Community Game Plans, Volunteer Management, Strategic Planning, Partnerships, Effective Meetings, Observation Skills and Reporting Suspicious Activities, and Target Hardening for the Home. The second day of the training included an overview of the Pact360 suite of drug education programs, which is contained in the Neighborhood Watch Toolkit, for community and parent awareness. The second day concluded with Pandemic Preparedness and Terrorism Awareness and Prevention.

"Neighborhood Watch promotes and encourages an active partnership between law enforcement and the citizens they serve," said Sheriff Shaun Golden. "Community awareness partnerships with police, such as Neighborhood Watch, produce positive results."

Communities represented included Woodbridge, Plumsted, Neptune Township, Shrewsbury, Holmdel, Matawan, Fair Haven, North Brunswick, Marlboro, South River, Tinton Falls, West Long Branch, Allenhurst, Ocean Township, Howell Township, Plainfield and Colts Neck.