Neighbors Throw a Party to Fight Crime : North Hollywood: Residents get to know each other as part of community-based policing efforts.

As David Mills served pizza, hot dogs and ice cream, Barbara Whitworth handed out her latest community crime bulletin to about 60 residents of a North Hollywood neighborhood who gathered Saturday for a block party.

“People have to get involved if we’re going to keep our neighborhood safe,” said Mills, who wore a T-shirt with the slogan “Take Back Our Streets, Unhandcuff Our Police.”

Mills, with Whitworth’s help, planned Saturday’s event at his home in the 12000 block of Dehougne Street as the first step in his new role as a community liaison with Los Angeles police. “I wanted to give our neighbors a chance to meet each other and I wanted a chance to meet them,” Mills said.

He and Whitworth were among 300 San Fernando Valley residents sworn in as community representatives last month in a ceremony at Cal State Northridge as part of a new experiment in community-based policing. In the program, the community representatives will work with 1,000 Neighborhood Watch block captains and 31 senior lead officers to teach their neighbors about crime and how to prevent it.

“It’s the only way we’re going to win this war against crime,” said Nancy Reeves, the senior lead officer in Mills and Whitworth’s neighborhood. “This is going to be a good group. I have no doubt it will grow. . . .”

Along with the 30 other officers, Reeves now works in the community full time, allowing her to “go house to house” every day helping residents. “Before, I could only do it once a week,” she said. “It’s 100% different.”

Whitworth, who has lived in the neighborhood since 1946, said she became involved in fighting crime in the 1960s when “North Hollywood had the only Neighborhood Watch going in the city.”

Whitworth’s bulletin, a hand-lettered, photocopied report on crime she distributes frequently to neighbors, announced Saturday that residential burglaries were down, but that armed robberies were up. She calls the police daily to update her tallies. Just the night before, the report announced, there had been a holdup at a local convenience store.

“A man was held up right in his driveway just last week,” Whitworth said. “There’s also a lot of purse-snatching by young teen-age crooks. They usually work in pairs.”

Unlike Whitworth, Mills became involved in neighborhood crime fighting only recently. “Unfortunately, it usually takes something bad to happen before anyone does,” he admitted. “I was a victim.”

He said he joined Neighborhood Watch in February after his home was burglarized by one of “a couple of people who were terrorizing the neighborhood. They were going around kicking front doors in, sometimes even when the people were home.”

After police had distributed descriptions of the culprits, a man matching the description rode past Mills’ house on a bicycle. Mills followed him on foot and called police. The burglar was arrested.

For Saturday’s party, Mills persuaded merchants to donate most of the food and hand-delivered invitations twice to neighbors on six streets. “Welcome Neighbors and LAPD” proclaimed a banner hanging from his garage.

“I had hoped to get a hundred people,” he said. “But I’m pleased with the turnout. It shows that these people care.”

During a short speech, Mills urged his neighbors to contact their block captains about any suspicious activities. “We have a real quiet neighborhood here and we want to keep it that way,” he said. “It’s kind of an oasis.”

Neighbor Marsha Pittman, who met Mills for the first time Saturday, said she is happy with his efforts.

“He has a small-town sense,” she said. “He’s a fighter. He perseveres. And that’s what it takes. This was getting too much like New York where everyone’s isolated. We need something like this.”