MERIDIAN TOWNSHIP - A neighborhood watch can be formal or informal with the Meridian Township Police Department.

If formal, the neighborhood needs to dedicate a coordinator to be the liaison with the police department. Then, the coordinator can select block captains assigned to specific streets that can call the coordinator whenever they see something suspicious or something that needs to be addressed.

Informally, someone should still be dedicated as the liaison for the neighborhood and they can be in direct contact with the police about little things like cars speeding through the neighborhood or teens congregating at an empty lot or vacant house.

"Communicating wise, neighbors need to use a phone tree. A phone tree is just to get information out among the neighbors quickly by word of mouth. A phone tree would be used in a situation if a child was missing from the neighborhood," said Lieutenant Greg Frenger of the Meridian Police Department.