Parent Patrols


In many places parents have organized patrols to reduce behaviors such as vandalism, violence, loitering, alcohol and substance abuse on the street and in places where young people gather. The New Authority's approach to schools and its reliance on support networks creates an option of using this concept to help parents join those endeavors.

Participating in the patrol expresses the parents' understanding that they can no longer protect their children by guarding the protected privacy of the home. In order for parents today to protect their children their supervision must also extend to the street. Operating together on the street achieves much more than reducing immediate dangers, it also empowers the parents against their isolation and the privacy impulse, both of which undermine their authority.