Crime-Prevention Officer Is Hired

The grass-roots approach to crime fighting employed by Port Hueneme’s Police Department has received another boost with the hiring of its first-ever crime-prevention officer.

Margaret O’Neill--known as Maggie to everyone from Police Chief John Hopkins to local residents--will be responsible for crime awareness programs such as Neighborhood Watch, as well as for setting up the city’s first crime analysis unit. The unit will keep tabs on everything from known gang members and sex offenders to pawnshop purchases.

O’Neill, a civilian, is expected to provide valuable support for the 21-member department.

Although the department is the county’s smallest, it nevertheless has a reputation for responding to residents’ calls for assistance that would go unanswered in larger cities.

“I’ve been asking for this position since I was made chief,” said Hopkins, who has led the department since 1992. “It’s one of the best things that has ever happened to the Police Department. We’ve never had anybody strictly dedicated to . . . Neighborhood Watch” and analyzing crime statistics.

One of O’Neill’s biggest responsibilities will be to resurrect the largely moribund Neighborhood Watch system in the community of about 22,000 people.

“There’s only two active Neighborhood Watch programs,” O’Neill said. “My goal is to have at least six active groups.”

Ken Vinson, a 40-year Port Hueneme resident and coordinator of the Evergreen/Gill Neighborhood Watch, welcomed O’Neill to the force.

“She is definitely needed,” he said. “Right now we need coordination between the Police Department and the Neighborhood Watch as far as suspect information. We need crime rate statistics to judge whether we’re making an impression, and I’m sure she can supply all that for us.”

O’Neill, who majored in criminal justice at San Diego State University, worked for the Oxnard Police Department for 3 1/2 years as its serious habitual offender case manager until the Clinton administration cut the program.

She most recently worked as a county probation officer and for a private company that tracked down militia movement sympathizer Timothy Kootenay in Belize.

Her position in Port Hueneme is funded by the state’s Citizens Option for Public Safety program.

The $51,784 grant the department receives is expected to be renewed annually.

O’Neill, who has been on the job two weeks, believes her crime analysis work already has made a difference.

“I already discovered a suspect in a burglary” through her analysis of pawnshop sales, she said. “We’ll probably be able to arrest him.”