A recent spate of crime in our area has led many people to get involved in the community in various ways. I would like to take a few moments to write about how we can create more dynamic neighborhood organizations.

I am captain of a neighborhood watch organization that spans several blocks in the northern area of Estudillo Estates. There are a couple of local neighborhood watch organizations that preexist ours, and we overlap with them; many of the members of those organizations are members of our own as well. Further, I have included the captains of the other organizations on our email list, to assure that our information gets out. We try to spread information among the neighbors about issues of safety, security, crime, and neighborhood improvement. There are no dues to be paid, but for those several people in our organization who do not have e-mail addresses, we do monthly hard-copy mailings and we ask that they pay a nominal amount each year to cover postage and paper costs.

Neighborhood watch is a marvelous program with chapters nationwide, dedicated to furthering communication between neighbors in order to promote safer, healthier neighborhoods. Our members are encouraged to report any incidents in the neighborhood so that all of us can be alerted. Once alerted, we can, depending on the situation, take appropriate action to prevent any recurrence of similar incidents. We operate on the premise that the more information we all have about what is happening in our neighborhoods, the better.

Toward this end, I have initiated a few contacts outside the immediate neighborhood in an effort to enhance our ability to stay abreast of current happenings in the neighborhood. First of all, I corresponded and met with San Leandro police chief Dale Attarian, to impress upon him the consensus in our neighborhood that we wanted better and easier access to police information. As I told him, many cities and neighborhoods nationwide now use cell phones, e-mail and Web sites to keep citizens advised of current and recent criminal activities, with significant identifications as to time, location, date, and type of incident.

Chief Attarian indicated that the police department understands and appreciates the desire of the community for better communication, and has very recently rolled out a Web-based system for better communication from the police department (see page 5 of this issue for more information about this system, including the URL). By better informing local residents about local crime incidents, the police department can expect to receive more information that may help solve these crimes.I have also initiated contact with the office of the Alameda County District Attorney. On occasion, we will find out that there has been an arrest made in connection with an incident in our neighborhood but too often, we never again hear about what happened. Many people have the impression that this means nothing happened. Other people are simply frustrated at the lack of information. I have spoken to Chief Attarian and the District Attorney’s Office about putting in place a system which will allow citizens to easily access the follow-up information.

For the moment, however, there is not such a system, but there are helpful individuals within the District Attorney’s Office who can track cases for us. For example, there was a residential burglary on Oakes Boulevard this year and, fortunately for us, one of our neighborhood watch members noticed suspicious behavior at the house being burglarized. He was perceptive enough to get a license plate number from a car that the suspects used to leave the area. Oakland police later arrested these suspects in connection with an
Oakland burglary. The basic report of the San Leandro burglary was available to us from the San Leandro Police Department, and follow-up information was then available to us from management at the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office.

As it turned out, three of the four individuals associated with the local burglary were prosecuted by the District Attorney’s Office and all three of them, who were juveniles, pled guilty. Once I learned of this from the District Attorney’s Office, I shared it with our neighborhood watch organization members. Many of our members, like me, are interested in this kind of follow-up.

In addition, I have been in contact with the local Superior Court as well. My purpose here was two-fold: first, to encourage the court to work with the District Attorney’s Office and the local police jurisdictions in the county to develop a means to enable citizens to follow criminal cases on the Web, and second, to be sure that the local judges understand that these crimes affecting our community are very disturbing to all of us and should be carefully dealt with by the courts. For example, recently I wrote to a local judge who was going to be hearing a case involving loca commercial burglaries, telling the judge that the string of commercial burglaries that had occurred in our area was of great concern to a large number of us. I am not advocating for unusual punishments for persons convicted of crime, but I am interested in making sure that the District Attorney and the courts understand what a blight these crimes in our neighborhood are.

Of course, every local organization -- neighborhood watch or otherwise -- can find its own way to enhance life in our community. But the foregoing demonstrates one means by which we can be effective in a small way, and without a great deal of trouble. All of these people, from the local police chief to the presiding judge of the Superior Court of the county, are trying to do their best. They can do even better when they hear from us concerning what we are interested in having them do.

When we get involved, we can all help create more dynamic neighborhood organizations. Often, an organization can accomplish more easily what a single individual would have more difficulty doing. I invite anyone and everyone to step up and do something to improve our community, each in his or her own way, to make San Leandro better each day.