Today neighbourhood watch symbolises modern-day patriotism in Hungary, the Prime Minister’s appointee for priority social affairs said on Saturday in Felsőtárkány on Regional Neighbourhood Watch Day.

Zsolt Nyitrai stressed that members of the organisation watch over the security of settlements and families, take part in the protection of the borders and the fight against migration on a voluntary basis, and during the coronavirus epidemic they assisted with the common containment effort by providing care for the elderly and monitoring public areas. The citizens and government of Hungary are equally grateful to neighbourhood watch officers for their work, he added.

The Prime Minister’s appointee said there are neighbourhood watch units in more than 2,000 settlements around Hungary, and the National Neighbourhood Watch Association and the more than 63,000 neighbourhood watch officers forming part of the organisation are the government’s strategic partners.

Mr Nyitrai pointed out that in recent years the cabinet had expressed its appreciation to neighbourhood watch not only at the level of words and gestures. They have adopted new, more effective legal rules in the interest of the organisation’s more effective and efficient operation.

Compared with the period before 2010, increased fiscal grants make the work of neighbourhood watch personnel easier, more predictable and safer. Through the Ministry of Interior, the association has received modern equipment, new and used vehicles, bicycles and motorcycles as well as high visibility reflective safety vests.

The civic government will continue to rely on this partnership also in the future, the Prime Minister’s appointee underlined.

“The fact that today our country is one of the world’s safest countries is also owing to a significant extent to the members of the organisation,” Mr Nyitrai said, adding that the Association is the most organised and largest partner of the police in social crime prevention, and he added it is a welcome development that in the past few years ever more young people have joined the organisation’s activities.

President of the National Neighbourhood Watch Association András Túrós said during the epidemic members of the more than two thousand organisations forming part of their association stood their ground in an exemplary manner and contributed to the successful fight against the virus. In many settlements, a kind of “neighbourhood watch social network” has developed, he said, mentioning as an example that every day they delivered minimum 20,000 portions of meals to the needy throughout the country.

According to his information, during the three months of the state of danger, neighbourhood watch officers completed some 2 million hours of disease control and public area monitoring service. This is the equivalent of the service hours of 4,000 police officers, the value of which is around HUF 2 billion.

However, also during this period, the organisation was not left to its own devices; in addition to the families of members, businesses and local governments, the government also looked after the association which was given some 150,000 face masks, 100,000 pairs of gloves and 5,000 litres of disinfecting liquid, the President listed. Mr Túrós highlighted that neighbourhood watch officers proved again that they can be relied upon, and as a result they gained in strength during the state of danger; “emerging as victors” from this situation, their social acceptance and perception improved significantly as well.

(Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister / MTI)