Confronting Crime

The crime symposium of May 7 generated the usual amount of rhetoric, a lot of it “old hat,” some of it a little different in its approach to discouraging crime in our community. After all, the need for neighborhood involvement is, and has been, an accepted fact for some time now, and the root causes of crime such as family breakdowns, permissiveness and low self-esteem, have been recognized time and again. It was noteworthy that the attendees were anxious to quickly move beyond these accepted phrases and get to what they feel should be the meat of the symposium--possible solutions.

Of the solutions presented, one of the most logical and possibly most feasible dealt with establishing a local juvenile hall in the old east valley sheriff’s station. Transporting a local offender to a location nearby where beds are available and a 48-hour detention period is more likely, might very well have a more sobering effect, than a trip to Ventura which results in a 45-minute release because of the lack of facilities for incarceration.

In a conversation with Chief Deputy Bob Brooks, I discovered that getting the officer back on the street quickly and discouraging kids who are on the “fringe” of gang involvement before they get totally caught up are two of the most effective means of controlling and preventing escalating gang activity. While gangs now account for about 12% of total crime in Thousand Oaks, they account for a much greater percentage of violent crime.

If we dovetail this procedure with the use of citizen volunteers, trained by the Sheriff’s Citizen Academy, to help process these juveniles, we could expedite the return of officers to the place they are most needed and effective--on the street. Not a new idea, but possibly one whose time has come. Certainly it merits further consideration.

MARSHALL DIXON

Thousand Oaks