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Crime prevention starts with Neighborhood Watch
by John Tawa
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Manhattan Beach Police Chief Ernie Klevesahl doles out pork sausage at a breakfast Saturday for 260 Neighborhood Watch volunteers. Pancake maker extraordinaire Bob "Grizzly" Jones, however, was the hero of the day, saving the police's bacon by stepping in to serve the much larger than expected crowd. Photo by John Tawa. |
Late one night about three years ago, Manhattan Beach resident Julian Christensen walked into his kitchen to get a glass of water. An area coordinator for Manhattan Beach's Neighborhood Watch for at least the past 12 years, Christensen instinctively peered out of his kitchen window.
"I see this guy driving down the street with no lights," he recalled.
The man parked around the corner on 27th Street and came back onto Pine Avenue. Christensen observed that the house across the street from his had its garage door open.
"He went in there and I called 911 right then," Christensen said. "While I'm watching him, he comes out of there riding a bicycle."
The police arrested the burglar on Poinsettia Avenue. He and another man had been responsible for more than $10,000 worth of thefts from people's garages.
Another Neighborhood Watch success story.
"It's a backbone of community policing," said police chief Ernie Klevesahl. "The success of our crime prevention is based on the fact that our neighbors look after one another. We truly are our neighbor's keeper."
Through Neighborhood Watch, neighbors get to know neighbors, explained volunteer Millie Newton, who mans the Neighborhood Watch office across the street from the police department.
"That's what it's all about."
Saturday morning at Manhattan Heights, the Manhattan Beach Police Department celebrated the 20th Anniversary of Manhattan Beach's Neighborhood Watch program, saying thank you with a feast of pancakes and sausages for the 260 past and present block captains and area coordinators who attended.
"Neighborhood Watch has worked," Crime Prevention Officer Jeanette Meers told the throng. "You guys are involved. You make the police department look really good because you're calling in and helping us do our job. We really do appreciate it. It's one of the best things about Manhattan Beach."
Police officer Gregg McMullin, the city's Crime Prevention Officer for four years, also sang the praises of Neighborhood Watch.
"A couple of years ago when there was a rash of garage burglaries in the Sand Section, the Neighborhood Watch people went out on a Friday-Saturday-Sunday morning and canvassed the area with articles and awareness materials for people to shut their garage doors," he explained. "As a result of that, the crime in the area went drastically down."
Neighborhood Watch, a volunteer group loosely affiliated with the police department, was founded in 1980 by Charlotte and Russ Lesser.
"I saw successful programs occurring in San Diego and I knew that our city was having an increase in burglaries," Charlotte Lesser explained. "I offered my services to assist and bring the program here."
At the time, the city was experiencing a burglary epidemic, with an average of 110 residential burglaries per month.
"Once we started teaching people how to button up their homes a little bit better and also how to look for suspicious people, we knew that our support would definitely help," Charlotte Lesser said.
The commitment to educating the community on crime prevention has worked. In 1998, 227 residential burglaries were reported. In 1999, the number was 231. That's one-sixth the number when the program started 20 years ago.
"I don't think it's a unique thing," Charlotte Lesser said. "Having particularly good police officers helps. It's a partnership."
"I think it's because the citizens get educated," Meers added. "We tell them how to call things in and what to look for. And they do. We enjoy a lot of support and we really appreciate that. I think that's why the crime is down." ER