I was never a believer in Neighborhood Watch programs. I see them as helping to facilitate government cop-outs on crime control. I can see their worth as an adjunct to effective crime control policies. As a substitute, which is what they have tended to become and were always going to become, they are useless.

This month the St Marys (South Australia) Neighborhood Watch newsletter confirmed to me that my assessment is spot on. The front page feature article is a generic spiel about - would you believe - the wearing of seatbelts in cars! It is a mirror of the current advertising campaign. What BS is that? What does that have to do with crime control?

Oh, yes! I see the point alright. Failure to wear seatbelts is a crime because it causes needless deaths. And in response to that I say to the Neighborhood Watch coordinator and the fans of this half-baked club of committee-lovers - Belt Up!

Worthwhile though they may be there are places for road safety articles and Neighborhood Watch newsletters isn't it. These periodicals were initially purported to be dedicated to locals helping to prevent mainstream crimes by keeping a sharp eye out and reporting anything suspicious. Admittedly, the results of that appear to have been dirigible volumes of hot air and little else. Since criminality is highly evolutionary criminals adapt quickly to changes in their environment. The public knew that well from the start. Criminologists and justice officials somehow didn't know it - or chose not to know it.

Perhaps the failure of this program to achieve anything sensible accounts for the complete lack of articles about local heroes and the deeds they have done in helping to curb crimes in the area. That is the sort of content we expect to see. Where is it?

To make matters worse, the remaining three pages contain nothing more than a few pages of generic crime prevention tips and a list of crimes reported in the area last month so tiny that it couldn't possibly reflect the true picture of local crimes.

And here is the final insult. A four page insert crammed full of advertising! Frankly, I found the advertising to be the only worthwhile content in this dismal rag that was stuffed in my letterbox. Since the advertising is clearly paid for and since the main content was nothing whatsoever new, just what exactly is money being raised for?

I know personally of many instances of cars and property being damaged overnight. What does Neighborhood Watch offer in response to that?

Next month's guest speaker at their meeting is from the Adelaide Youth Court. The subject is Juvenile Justice Family Conferencing. That news hints, to me at least, that what I have always suspected is true. That Neighborhood Watch programs are a tool for governments and justice officials to brainwash public minds with their own preferred crime control policies. Those policies are the ones that work for them.