OXNARD : Firm Donates Phones to Community Patrol

A cellular telephone company has donated $10,000 in phones, voice mail boxes and phone service to Oxnard’s Neighborhood Watch groups.

Cellular One’s Ventura County office has agreed to give Neighborhood Watch members 25 telephones, allowing them immediate access to other watch members, police and emergency personnel. The phones will be carried by patrol leaders in each of the city’s Neighborhood Watch areas.

“Sometimes they need to call police or an ambulance immediately but have no place to call from,” said Sylvia Schnopp, marketing manager for Cellular One in Camarillo. “It takes them a couple of minutes, and those minutes can be crucial.”

As part of the new program, titled “Cellular Community Watch,” the Neighborhood Watch members will also receive voice mailboxes to leave messages for each other.

The program was the brainchild of Gary London, an Oxnard Neighborhood Watch member and engineer with Cellular One. London asked the company to donate one or two phones and said he was surprised when they agreed to donate 25, along with free service.

“We realized that they had quite a bit of Neighborhood Watch programs, and we wanted to provide enough for all of them,” Schnopp said. “We realized that cellular service would be a great tool for them.”