Shomrim (neighborhood watch group)

Shomrim/Shmira (Hebrew: שומרים/שמירה‎‎) (lit. "watchers", "guards", "protection") are organizations of proactive volunteer Jewish civilian patrols which have been set up in Haredi communities in neighborhoods across the United States and Great Britain (and in many other countries) to combat burglary, vandalism, mugging, assault, domestic violence, nuisance crimes, antisemitic attacks, and to help and support victims of crime. They also help locate missing people.

Shomrim volunteers are unarmed and do not have the authority to make arrests, other than citizen's arrest. They are effective in tracking and detaining suspects until police arrive. Some Shomrim members in the United States have been convicted of assaults and misdemeanors against people from outside their community, particularly African-Americans.

In Brooklyn,Baltimore, and London many residents call Shomrim prior to the police due to the former's faster response time. However, one of the volunteer patrols in New York has been criticised by the New York City Police Department for not always notifying police when a call comes in. In London however, the Hackney Police Borough Commander Chief Superintendent Matthew Horne complimented Shomrim on this point, saying that "they will generally know when is the time to call us. They don't tend to waste our time and they don't let people go". Additionally, Brooklyn Shomrim organisers have been accused of withholding information on suspected child molesters and other Jewish criminals, in keeping with an interpretation of the Torah prohibition against mesirah (informing on a fellow Jew to the non-Jewish authorities).

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Wikipedia