Merchants Form ‘Buddy System’ to Combat Crime in Sun Valley

Several Sun Valley businesses are banding together to fight crime with an unusual weapon: their telephones.

In a variation of the “buddy system,” the Sun Valley Chamber of Commerce has formed a telephone network through which merchants can pass word of burglaries, crimes and suspicious people seen in the community. The program is similar to a crime-alert information network started last March in Toluca Lake.

Sun Valley’s program was sparked by a recent assault on an employee of a Sunland Boulevard doughnut shop and the robbery and shooting of a woman last January as she was leaving a bank. Accounts of the Night Stalker murders also accelerated efforts to form a crime-alert network, officials said.

“We have to let each other know what’s going on around us, and, if we call each other, everyone can be a lot more alert,” said Jill Campbell, a businesswoman who is organizing the network. “We hope to counterbalance the criminal element.”

Seen as Effective

According to police, crime has declined this year in Sun Valley as well as Toluca Lake. But they do support crime-alert networks as an effective way for merchants to protect their properties.

Under Sun Valley’s plan, businesses will belong to six-member clusters, with one business acting as the leader of each. Whenever people at one business become aware of a crime, they will call a neighboring merchant who belongs to the same cluster, as well as the cluster leader and a designated business in another cluster.

Campbell said 52 of 1,200 businesses contacted have signed up for the network, which will have its first test next week with an “emergency” concocted by Campbell.

Sun Valley Chamber officials said they hope their system will generate more enthusiasm than a similar Toluca Lake program, set up last March by the Toluca Lake Chamber of Commerce.

Slow Start in Toluca Lake

Chamber President Robert Heaney said the Toluca Lake program’s effectiveness has not really been tested because of members’ preoccupation with other chamber activities and “a little bit of apathy.”

“I think some of the business people feel that it may be a better idea for the guy down the street than it is for them,” Heaney said. “We hope to get a little more organized and more involved with the program next month.”

Only 25 of 225 of the Toluca Lake businesses that belong to the chamber have joined the network. Members call a 24-hour chamber hot line when a crime occurs or when merchants see “suspicious” people. The call triggers a chain of telephone calls throughout Toluca Lake to member businesses.

Campbell said she hopes frequent meetings and telephone calls between participating businesses will help to establish a personal bond among Sun Valley merchants and enhance the program’s effectiveness.