CITIZEN COPS: Starting June 5, two more...

CITIZEN COPS: Starting June 5, two more police cruisers will patrol Thousand Oaks if the City Council approves the idea tonight (B7). . . . Members of Volunteers in Policing could write parking tickets and call for backup if confronted by irate motorists. . . . “They’re taught how to handle the interaction if someone starts yelling. . . . Just stop and say, ‘Sir, let me have a deputy handle this for you,’ ” then summon backup by cellular phone, said Sheriff’s Lt. Mike Brown.

BUZZING OFF: Noisy helicopters, sticky residue, heated arguments about Mediterranean fruit flies--it all winds down in Camarillo tonight--weather permitting. . . . A squadron of malathion-spraying choppers will buzz the 16-square-mile eradication zone at 9 p.m. in the 14th and final battle of Ventura County’s war on Medflies. . . . No flies have been trapped since November, says U.S. Department of Agriculture spokesman Doug Hendrix, but 86 square miles of citrus and avocado land will stay under quarantine for 45 days more--just to make sure.

HEAT IS ON: After a winter of drenching rains and wild growth, Ventura County fire officials declared fire season open Monday. . . . That gives property owners like Abdul Wakil and Abdul Wakil Jr. (with rake) of Thousand Oaks nine more days to finish cutting their weeds. . . . Those who fail to clear brush away from their buildings do not often get away with it. County policy is to hire a contractor to clear the brush, then bill the scofflaws. B1

LEGAL EAGLES: Next fall, Camarillo High School students can take a new class on criminal justice, much like one Don Haskell has taught for 15 years at Ventura High (B1) . . . . Haskell’s alumni include Ventura police such as canine officer Quinn Fenwick, who shows off his dog for the class. . . . Every fall, Haskell says, the most common student misconception he must correct is “that people get off on technicalities, rather than just their own rights.”