Paseo del Mar & Area Residents Form Neighborhood Watch

by Barbara Paige

Nineteen residents and neighbors of Paseo del Mar met on August 24th at the home of Elaine Clark to form a Neighborhood Watch group. The evening started with a visit from Lead Officer Joe Buscaino, who outlined the benefits of forming such a group. He was accompanied by Traffic Officer Bill McDonald. The need for this group has grown from the spate of robberies that have occurred in this area and in the Palisades recently from plants and shrubs being stolen to vandalism.

Officer Buscaino spoke about the effectiveness of Neighborhood Watch groups coming from all neighbors being alerted and “watching out” for each other. When suspicious activity is seen, call the police or your block captain and report it. Neighborhood Watch groups have contributed to the decline of crime in most areas.

Officer McDonald: A couple of weeks ago, the officers were down here and gave out 150 warnings of nioise, speeding, etc. in a six hour period. This past weekend, only ten citations were needed. So the message seems to have found its mark. He also spoke about the new monitor they were now using which records all loud noises, gun shots and motrcycle backfires. It photographs the offending person and a ticket is sent.

Residents were encouraged to make use of hand-outs of non-emergency Crime Reporting and hotlines and other community phone numbers useful for most community problems. The Harbor Area Crime Map shows the types of problems that occur on a specific day. These maps are good and are updated frequently. You can zoom into your area and find if there have been any crimes.

Neighborhood Watch programs are informal meetings and may be held in homes, schools, churches, community centers, etc.

Call the Community Relations office at (310) 548-7600 to set a meeting date and time. The next meeting of the Paseo del Mar area group will be held in October at Elaine Clark’s home.