With Crime on Decline, It’s Time to Give Police a Hand

According to the numbers, crime is down--again--in the San Fernando Valley. So why do most of us feel as vulnerable as ever? Despite years of consecutive drops in reported crimes, many residents from Tarzana to Sunland hardly feel safe enough to stroll their own neighborhoods after dark or to confront rowdy teenagers before they get into real trouble. Without minimizing the very real dangers and consequences of random violent crime, it’s worth noting that the risk really is not as great as our collective fears.

Helped by declining crime rates nationwide, Los Angeles police reported fewer crimes in the first six months of this year than for the same period last year. For instance, violent crime--homicides, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults--fell nearly 10% valleywide, with steeper declines in the LAPD’s Van Nuys and West Valley divisions. Property crimes fell more than 18%. Those are real declines, and they ought to be noticeable. Officers use more sophisticated analysis to target problem areas and coordinate information between patrol areas to track habitual criminals. Police have done their part.

Now it’s time for residents to do theirs. Keeping streets safe is not the province of police alone. Without residents claiming responsibility for their own neighborhoods, no level of police presence will make a community feel safe. Regardless of how many crimes actually occur, perception persists that no place is as safe as it once was. Part of that is natural. The Valley is no longer the freshly scrubbed suburb many residents moved into. The streets are not as tidy, the walls are tagged with graffiti. All of those little things seep into a mind and make a person feel uneasy, threatened.

But they can be fixed. Graffiti can be painted over as soon as it appears. Litter can be picked up when it is found. Neighbor kids raising a ruckus can be told to quiet down the first time--before they are emboldened enough to make true mayhem. When we don’t know our neighbors, the community fabric that helps thwart crime begins to tear. Stitching it back together requires far more energy and heartache than never letting it fray in the first place.

All of us know that sensible little actions can help prevent us, individually, from being victimized. Lock doors. Get a dog. Stay alert. In the same way, sensible little actions can help prevent us, collectively, from being victimized. Know our neighbors. Take responsibility for our kids, our block, our city. When we do, we start to feel safer. And the criminals start to run scared.

That’s how it ought to be.