Fountain Valley police to resume vacation home check program

The Fountain Valley Police Department will resume its vacation home check program on Monday, April 19.

Retired senior volunteers have been used by the department to provide the year-round service. Joanne Minney, a community service officer assigned to the crime prevention team, said the service was disrupted for reasons connected to the coronavirus pandemic.

“It’s a year-round service that we offer, but due to the pandemic, we had to suspend our retired senior volunteer program ... they’re the ones that check, so the service had to be discontinued, as well, for the duration until things opened up a little bit,” Minney said.

The Fountain Valley Police Department currently has close to 40 volunteers, Minney added.

Residents will be able to go to the Fountain Valley Police Department’s website (fvpd.org) and fill out a request form to have their houses checked on daily if they are going out of town.

“The vacation house check is basically a service that we perform where we check the outside of the house to make sure that doors and windows are secure and that there’s not been any evidence of a break-in, basically, because people are on vacation,” Minney said. “Sometimes when [criminals] know that they’re on vacation, they use that as a perfect opportunity to break in.”

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