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VENTURA : Crime Watch Is Showing Results

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Ventura police are looking for a few good neighbors.

Neighborhood Watch, a program designed to prevent residential crime through community involvement, has been regenerated by the Ventura Police Department’s new crime prevention unit.

“We love nosy neighbors with binoculars watching their neighbors. If we had a whole tract full of those, we’d do real well,” said Cpl. Russ Hayes who, with police services officer Julie Brandt, staffs the new outreach-oriented unit.

When Proposition 13 passed in 1978, crime prevention funding and services dried up, Hayes said. But the department was reactivated a year and a half ago, and results are starting to show.

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“Our residential burglaries are down 5%. We take credit for that,” Hayes said, citing 1,225 residential burglaries in 1989 versus 1,163 in 1990.

They began their work by approaching residential burglary victims and urging them to start Neighborhood Watch on their blocks with the help of police. Through word of mouth, the news spread.

“Now we have over 3,000 active participants, with over 200 Neighborhood Watch captains,” Brandt said. “By the end of the year, we’ll have a good half or more of the city in Neighborhood Watch.”

The officers support the community groups by holding quarterly meetings of block captains where people can share experiences and feedback. All members receive a bimonthly bulletin that lets them know where burglaries have occurred and gives tips on preventing residential break-ins.

On nearly every street in the Seneca tract off Ventura Avenue, a sign alerts visitors that it is Neighborhood Watch territory. So do stickers on homes. No burglaries have occurred in the previously troubled tract since residents joined the program last July.

“They (police) tell us, ‘If you have a gut feeling that something is wrong, go for it, call; 99% of the time you’re right,”’ said Donna Barnes, block captain for Zuni Court.

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