Oxnard Police Take Beat to the Airwaves : Television: Weekly cable program on crime prevention has attracted national acclaim. Some credit the show as a factor in the city’s crime drop.

It’s two minutes to air time, and Oxnard Police Officer Peter Freiberg has a shiny face. A young woman appears from behind the set and hurriedly powders his forehead.

“This is going to ruin your reputation as a tough guy,” she teases.

Crime Prevention Analyst David Keith adjusts his wireless microphone.

“Good evening, and welcome to ‘Street Beat,’ ” he practices in a smooth baritone.

“One minute!” a voice yells from the control room.

“Now, if you start to perspire, use this,” the makeup woman instructs Freiberg, handing him a tissue. “Blot, don’t wipe.”

The rock-inspired promo music plays and the camera zooms in on Keith, who smiles and welcomes viewers to 90 minutes of discussion about crime in Oxnard.

Every Monday night at 8, Keith and members of the Oxnard Police Department take to the airwaves with their weekly televised talk show, “Street Beat.” The glossy program is part of an effort to curb offenses in Ventura County’s most crime-plagued city.

Police officials say the 9-year-old program is teaching Oxnard residents how not to be victims and has contributed to the city’s drop in crime in 1993.

“It’s an extremely important tool,” said Oxnard Police Chief Harold Hurtt. “After we highlight a community, history has shown crime has gone down tremendously in that neighborhood because people are more alert.”

While several community leaders praise the program, some say it cannot take the place of putting more officers on the street and increasing citizen patrols.

Keith and Hurtt are regulars on “Street Beat,” which is televised live in English every Monday night and in Spanish every other Tuesday.

The format is simple: Keith tells his television audience about current crime trends in the Oxnard area and facilitates discussion among law enforcement officials on crime-prevention techniques. Then, Keith, Hurtt, Cmdr. Tom Cady and a guest police officer field calls from viewers. Twice a month the English-language show focuses on a specific neighborhood in Oxnard.

The program costs the department nothing, Keith said, because it is produced by Jones Intercable as a community service. Occasionally, the department spends small amounts on advertising.

Recently, for example, the department distributed 900 flyers in the Bartolo neighborhood, hoping to lure a larger audience for a program focusing on that area.

“I’d say this was a pretty well-advertised program,” said Mike Coz, chairman of the Bartolo Neighborhood Council. Coz, who attended the show’s filming, said police blanketed the community with flyers, but he was unsure whether many residents tuned in.

“I would hope so, but I feel that everything that was said had been said before,” he said. “The program is kind of a fluffy presentation.”

Even so, Coz said, the show helps to ease people’s concerns. “Mostly, it gives us a good feeling that the Police Department and city are making a sincere effort to help the community.”

Bonnie Trent, chairwoman for the Southwinds Neighborhood Council, said she agreed the program is worthwhile.

“It gives the community a chance to hear exactly what is going on in their neighborhood,” said Trent, a frequent viewer of the show. “I think it gives people a faith in David Keith--this is a real person that they get to know through television. I think that anything that helps the community have a better relationship with the Police Department is real important.”

But some residents said the show is only part of the solution.

“I have never watched the program, I’ve heard about it,” said Charles Olson, patrol leader for the Lemonwood Neighborhood Watch. “I say the watch patrols are what’s making the crime go down.”

Oxnard resident Stewart Mimm said he likes the show, but believes more needs to be done.

“I’m kind of a hard-nosed old-timer. I want our Police Department to enforce the law in a more forceful way,” Mimm said. “I think our city still has too much crime.”

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Olson said he’d like to see the police take a more personal approach to crime prevention, such as going to schools and getting more involved in the community. “The police have to go into the street,” he said.

Hurtt said he would love to visit every Oxnard resident personally and hear his or her concerns. But since that is physically impossible, he said, communication through television is the next best option.

Keith agreed.

“I’ve always felt that if I could sit down with you for 90 minutes and tell you how to stay personally safe, . . . I know that I could make you a safer person,” he said. “What we do in essence every Monday night is go one-on-one for 90 minutes with people.”

Sylvia Gallardo, who has been directing the show since 1986, said the program averages 15 to 20 calls a night. Typically, callers are homeowners, and most are women.

“I think it’s older women ages 40 to 80. We get a lot of concerns from elderly ladies,” she said.

The idea for “Street Beat,” came to Keith nine years ago, when he was teaching crime prevention techniques to various Oxnard service groups.

“Back then I was doing 200 public presentations a year,” Keith said. “Whatever (organization) there is out there, I’d spoken to it. One morning back in 1985 I thought: It’s too bad I can’t figure out how to give this speech to everyone at one time. Well, television is the best way to do that.”

Keith approached Jones Intercable, which agreed to carry the show as a public service.

“I stood up back then. My knees were knocking and I had a map behind me on an easel,” Keith said. Since then, he added, “things have evolved into a slightly more sophisticated form.”

Now, Keith and the officers sit around a green faux-marble table with matching faux-marble pillars looming behind them. A colorful graphic map of the neighborhood being discussed has replaced Keith’s crude paper and easel.

Only one other Ventura County city--Thousand Oaks, which is patrolled by sheriff’s deputies--has had a program similar to “Street Beat.” But Thousand Oaks’ “Crime Scene,” which began in 1991, was put on hold recently while the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department works on a new format modeled after the commercial TV show “Cops.”

“Street Beat” recently became a source of fame for the Oxnard department, which has been recognized across the nation for high-tech crime prevention tactics.

The National League of Cities presented Oxnard with an Innovation Award for “Street Beat” in December. It was one of seven U. S. communities honored for local government criminal justice programs.

“Since we won this thing we’ve had 150 police departments from around the country calling us,” Keith said. “It’s been unbelievable.”

Officials from Lancaster to Manitoba, Canada, have called Keith inquiring about the show, he said.

“It’s fun,” Keith said. “Maybe there is a little pride involved, but I’m very proud of what we’ve done here.”