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Things started to get a little sketchy in the neighborhood of Dyer Road between Linda and Leslie streets in 2004.

Two vehicles were stolen from the area at about the same time.

Fortunately, Mary Dixon, a resident of the neighborhood, knew that neither she nor her neighbors had to stand for that.

Dixon had been a Neighborhood Watch block captain and coordinator for 20 years in Las Vegas before she and her husband retired to Pahrump in 2004.

Prior to the cars being stolen from the neighborhood, Dixon said her husband found himself face to face with a suspicious individual on their front porch at 2 a.m.

So Dixon decided to don her captain's hat once again and started a Neighborhood Watch group.

Neighborhood Watch is a proactive community program that helps residents to ensure that their neighborhood is protected from crime.

Members of the groups meet regularly and keep each other updated on any recent crime in the general area, or the entire town or city, and often work with law enforcement officers to learn about crime prevention.

The nationwide organization was formed in 1972 by the National Sheriff's Association in response to a rise in local crime.

Today, thousands of independent and local Neighborhood Watch groups exist.

Dixon's group, for example, is made up of three block captains who each command a section of the neighborhood.

If one of the neighbors notices suspicious activity or crime occurring in the neighborhood, he or she will alert the block captain.

The block captain will in turn call the other block captains, who then each call their residents, similar to a phone tree system.

"If you can keep on top of what's going on, then you can prevent it," Dixon summed up.

Neighborhood Watch groups, however, are not simply vigilante groups of concerned citizens.

They work closely with law enforcement officials, in Pahrump's case mainly the Sheriff's Auxiliary Unit and sheriff's office crime analyst Ray Roberts.

Members of the auxiliary will sometimes attend meetings and keep members of the group apprised about crime in the area and give them crime prevention tips.

Neighborhood Watch groups also take a proactive effort in keeping their neighborhoods clean.

When graffiti began to appear on David Street and Dyer Road, and then later farther north on Windsong Lane, the Neighborhood Watch captains let the sheriff's office know.

"It happened on a Saturday, and by Monday it was cleaned up," Dixon said.

The most important first step of starting a Neighborhood Watch group, according to Roberts, is simple: "Know your neighbors."

That's because in order for a Neighborhood Watch group to be effective, Roberts estimates that it takes at least 75 percent cooperation from the neighbors.

"One person cannot be a Neighborhood Watch," Roberts emphasized.

As an example, Roberts explained that if a community or area had 20 homes in one area, a person interested in starting a program might go door to door and ask residents if they are interested in becoming members.

Even if only 10 of the residents (living in 10 different houses) agree, that's enough people to help protect the neighborhood.

Once potential members have been established, the future watch group should contact Roberts and establish a date for the first meeting.

Roberts has a presentation he gives to forming groups, featuring a video that shows the potential consequences of not having a Neighborhood Watch group versus having one.

Once the group is established, they elect a block captain and/or coordinator.

"Once that's established, it's their neighborhood," Roberts said. "People in the neighborhood know their neighborhood better than anyone else. They know who should be there and who shouldn't be."

Additional information, offered in the National Sheriff's Association handbook on Neighborhood Watch, includes training residents how to properly conduct patrols, identify a suspicious person or people, and various other notification and prevention techniques.

Roberts added that since crime is pretty much increasing everywhere, police departments and law enforcement officers have had to become more reactive.

This means the role individual residents can play in preventing crime has become increasingly more important.