Nowadays there are many types of ensuring citizens' security at the local level. One of them are citizens' patrols. They can be named differently, and have differential powers, but always consist of the average citizens, and have the same goal, which is supporting local security services in protecting security and public order. The paper presents an idea of community crime prevention as a crime reduction tool, and one of its dimension, citizens' patrols. The presentation has an international perspective. There are presented American's patrols, where the idea of community crime prevention was born, and these are competed to the citizens' patrols existed in different European countries, including post-communist countries, such as Hungary and Poland.