Cars, Uniforms Proposed for Citizens Patrol

Stepping up its efforts to deter crime in Camarillo, the Sheriff’s Department is proposing to bolster its volunteer Citizens Patrol by purchasing marked vehicles and uniforms for its members.

“The Citizens Patrol assists the police by serving as extra eyes and ears for the department,” said Sheriff’s Cmdr. Craig Husband, who will ask the Camarillo City Council on Wednesday to approve spending $15,000 on the program.

While they are not police officers and will not be allowed to carry guns, volunteer patrol members do receive training on how to look out for crime in their community, Husband said. This allows sheriff’s deputies to concentrate on more pressing problems, Husband said.

The patrol program, which began in 1976, previously assisted deputies with surveillance and limited traffic control. Members receive three hours of training per month, with each volunteer providing roughly six hours of service per week.

If the spending plan is approved, the 20-member patrol, with appropriate training, could also conduct vacation house checks, work on crime prevention programs and do clerical work at the sheriff’s station, Husband said.

“Citizen patrols are used successfully in other areas to provide additional manpower, and Camarillo has for a long time utilized volunteers for a number of different services to free up deputies,” said Councilman Bill Liebmann. “Anything we can do to make our police resources more effective and provide better protection for the citizens is a project we should support.”

The cost of purchasing two surplus patrol vehicles, equipment to outfit them and a uniform for each volunteer would run about $15,000 in the first year with recurring expenses limited to vehicle maintenance and replacement uniforms, Husband said.

The purchases would be paid for with assets seized in drug-related cases, authorities said.

The proposal comes as crime in Camarillo is actually on the decline.

“In every category across the board, in violent and property crimes, there was up to a 26% decrease last year,” said Dana Trottier, Camarillo’s crime analyst. “The biggest decrease, which is also the biggest problem in the city, was in property crime.”

Last year, there were 398 petty thefts reported in the city, 219 vehicular burglaries, 165 grand thefts, 146 commercial burglaries and 104 residential burglaries. As for violent crime, there were 66 aggravated assaults reported, and no homicides or rapes.

“Now is the time to institute programs like this to enhance efforts even more and get ahead of the curve,” Husband said of the department’s plans to improve the volunteer patrol.

“These people that donate their time and expense are very special people and dedicated to the mission,” Husband said. “I decided this would be a way to enhance their responsibility, both satisfying their need for fulfillment . . . and also serve the community and help the department.”

With the Citizens Patrol helping with everything from surveillance against commercial burglaries to distributing crime prevention literature, the 38 deputies assigned to Camarillo will have more time to patrol problem areas and have quicker response time to emergency calls, Husband said.

Although not modeled after the Thousand Oaks Citizens Patrol, the programs are quite similar, he said.

Thousand Oaks began their patrol in June 1995 with members outfitted in uniforms and driving marked cars, said Glenda Waldrop with the Sheriff’s Department Crime Prevention Division.

“They’re an effective deterrent to crime because they spend a lot more time just cruising the streets than the deputies could,” Waldrop said of Thousand Oaks’ 42 volunteers.

If the requested purchases are approved for the Camarillo program, Husband said, the Sheriff’s Department will launch a recruitment drive to add at least 10 patrol members.

To volunteer for the Camarillo Citizens Patrol, call 388-5130.