Crisis Team Helps Console Crime Victims

They may not carry guns, but they play a crucial behind-the-scenes role in the fight against crime.

Instead of badges, the 21 volunteer members of the West Valley Crisis Response Team sport special T-shirts and jackets on duty. Police call on the low-key group to help them with some of the toughest aspects of police work, such as comforting crime victims or their family members.

“We’re here to help our community in any way that we can,” said Lana Kuhlen of Woodland Hills, the team’s co-coordinator. “As a result, we can be called out to just about any imaginable situation.”

In one unusual case, Kuhlen said police activated the response team after they investigated a domestic dispute and discovered a little girl who was badly in need of a change of clothing. Officers brought the child to the station, where response members outfitted her in a brand new sunshine-yellow sweatsuit.

“Her eyes got huge when we brought the sweatsuit out,” Kuhlen said. “She was so relieved to have a change of clothing.”

Team members also played with the little girl at the station and read to her until it was time for her to go home.

Team members wear pagers 24hours a day, seven days a week, to be ready at a moment’s notice to report to the West Valley police station in Reseda or directly to a crime scene in their service area, which includes Encino, Tarzana, Canoga Park, Reseda, Winnetka, West Hills and Woodland Hills.

Their efforts, according to police, are invaluable not only because they free up officers to finish paperwork and detectives to investigate crimes, but because of the comfort they provide to people going through what may be the most tragic moments of their lives.

“We’re not counselors,” Kuhlen said. “We really go in as a neighbor or a dear friend.”

Kuhlen and co-coordinator Ellie Vargas have been with the team since its inception in the summer of 1996. Kuhlen described the team as a diverse group whose members come from all walks of life.

Some are nurses and teachers. Others are business owners or clergy. The multi-faceted group also possesses a broad array of language skills, with members able to translate Korean, German, Mandarin and at least a half-dozen other languages.

Team members respond in pairs and are equipped with resource books that list phone numbers for counseling services, support groups, legal clinics, the city attorney’s office and the locations of local hospitals. In worst-case scenarios, they are prepared to provide family members with information on local funeral and mortuary services.

On a brighter note, Kuhlen said the team recently began stocking children’s books at the West Valley station so kids stuck there will have something to occupy their time. Since occasionally the books are sent home with the children, the group is seeking book donations from the public, which can be dropped off at the West Valley station, 19020 Vanowen St.

Cash donations are also welcome, Kuhlen said, and would help pay for the team’s pager bills, which members currently foot themselves. Donations would also allow the team to replenish its supply of children’s clothing, which is purchased new.

A pamphlet describing the crisis response team and requirements for membership is available for those interested in becoming volunteers. Information is available by phone at (818) 347-4824.