VENTURA COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : Team Approach Targets Crime

For all the attention paid to advances in law-enforcement techniques and technology, it was good old-fashioned teamwork that produced a 49% drop in crime in Fillmore this year.

Strong leadership from the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department called the shots--but the key was getting many more Fillmore residents to join the crime-fighting team.

After a decade in which crime in Fillmore steadily grew worse even as it improved in most of Ventura County, the first six months of 1999 showed a remarkable rebound. Serious offenses declined from 251 to 128, with burglaries down two-thirds to 32 and thefts down one-half to 66. Violence fell sharply too.

The turnaround began in February 1998, when the sheriff sent in Capt. Chris Godfrey to take charge of the Fillmore station. His game plan was to put the squeeze on gang members and to make allies of Fillmore’s large Latino community.

To spoil the gangs’ party, Godfrey brought in some veteran detectives and narcotics experts and a squad of aggressive young patrol officers. They rousted the gang members at home with probation searches and stepped up investigations of crime scenes.

To better connect with law-abiding Fillmore residents, the department began by speaking their language--literally. Although Latinos make up about two-thirds this farm community of 13,000, many of them have a long-standing distrust of police and were further discouraged by a language barrier. Godfrey hired more officers who can speak Spanish.

He also added volunteers at the storefront office at Lemon and 3rd streets and started a Community Law Enforcement Academy, in both English and Spanish, in which officers teach residents that police are on their side and how they can help fight crime. So far, 100 residents have learned the workings of the justice system by touring the jail and county courthouse in Ventura, visiting the department’s firearms training simulator in Camarillo, and hearing from experts on everything from drugs to gangs to hostage situations.

Fillmore residents have noticed the effort--and they appreciate it.

“The guys [deputies] we have out here now really try,” one resident told The Times last week. “They get out of their cars and they communicate. It’s kind of like ‘Mayberry RFD.’ ”

Capt. Godfrey--now Cmdr. Godfrey--has moved on to a new assignment, in Moorpark. His team’s remarkable success in Fillmore serves as a reminder to the whole county that great things are possible when law enforcement officials and concerned residents work together.