Moorpark Rejects Sponsorship of Citizens Patrol : Crime: An organizer vows that the group will go forward with support from the private sector.

Citing a lack of money, manpower and liability insurance, Moorpark officials have declined to sponsor a program that would allow residents to patrol their streets for crime.

The Ventura County Sheriff’s Department, after more than seven months of negotiating with the volunteers, told the City Council that it could not adequately screen, train and equip applicants for less than $25,000.

“We can’t administer that program right now because of our lack of available resources,” Lt. Richard Rodriguez told the council Wednesday night. “We wouldn’t be able to exercise control.”

Steve Brodsky, who originally proposed that the group patrol the city’s streets at night carrying walkie-talkies, cameras, floodlights and night-vision goggles, promised that he will organize without the city’s sponsorship.

Citizen patrols have operated for 10 and 15 years in Ojai and Camarillo, respectively, and another began recently in San Bernardino County, said Brodsky, 43, who owns an electronics company in Moorpark.

“It’s the wave of the future,” he said. “I feel as if our program has been misunderstood.”

In July, Brodsky proposed that the group make citizen’s arrests and take photographs for courtroom evidence but remain anonymous. But a few residents complained that the group could turn into vigilantes acting as a fascist, secret police force.

After negotiating with the Sheriff’s Department--which Brodsky said he contacted because he wanted deputies to train his members--the group of about 40 agreed to forgo making arrests.

Still, the Sheriff’s Department said the liability risk was too great for the department to absorb.

“In today’s world, liability is much more of a visible consideration than it might have been 10 to 15 years ago,” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez, who said Moorpark has the lowest crime rate of any city in Ventura County, advocated tipping programs such as Neighborhood Watch and Crime Stoppers.

“Those are passive programs, as opposed to more active programs where you actively leave your residence,” he said.

Council members, three of whom voted to table the issue Wednesday, said they were unwilling to pay for extra insurance to protect the city against a possible lawsuit.

“The basic mission there you can’t fault,” said Mayor Paul Lawrason, praising Ojai’s program.

In Ojai, more than 30 uniformed senior citizens work with the Sheriff’s Department during the day, primarily conducting vacation house checks and fingerprinting children.

The program aims for small-town helpfulness. “Most people up here really respect us and even the high school kids think of us as their grandfolk,” said Howard Chewning, 71, who has been a volunteer for 10 years.

In Camarillo, volunteers use their own cars and equipment to assist in surveillance operations. Neither city has faced a lawsuit, organizers said.

And in the San Bernardino County community of Redlands, a city twice the size of Moorpark, police this week helped put the first citizen volunteers on the street. The city paid $2,000 to restore two old patrol cars and the department absorbed the cost of screening applicants, Redlands Police Lt. Clete Hyman said.

Nothing prevents the Moorpark group from organizing as private citizens, and Brodsky, who still wants his group to patrol the city in unmarked cars, has said he will seek donations from area businesses to fund a revised program.

“We’re going to be basically the same as Neighborhood Watch except we’re not going to be sitting around watching ‘thirtysomething,’ ” he said.