Safety & Security Initiatives
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Please describe the security issues facing your community that you have addressed. |
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The residents of the Hunters Creek Community Association face many of the same type of security issues as other neighborhoods - crime, vandalism, graffiti and providing a safe neighborhood. Hunters Creek also faces the problem of securing the use of private community parks for the exclusive use of only Hunters Creek residents and their guests. |
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Please describe the steps your community has implemented to strengthen security for each of these areas. Please be specific. |
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Over the years, the residents of Hunters Creek have asked that the protection of our residents and community be a top priority. Hunters Creek has many tools to try to accomplish this goal. Back in 1986, Hunters Creek started to employ several off-duty Orange County Deputies to supplement the regular patrols supplied by the Orange County Sheriffs Office. Today, that off-duty patrol has grown to encompass park patrols as well as neighborhood patrols throughout the Community 7 days per week. These off-duty deputies are only a piece of the security of Hunters Creek.
Hunters Creek also has a very active Orange County certified Citizen on Patrol (COP) program. We have over 20 licensed and certified volunteers who are trained by the Orange County Sheriffs Office in areas such as crime prevention, first aid, CPR, sexual harassment and how to spot suspicious criminal activity. Community volunteers are not law enforcement officers, but are trained to be the eyes and ears for the Sheriffs Office. Community volunteers help to reduce crime through increased cooperation between citizens and the Orange County Sheriffs Office. The Citizens on Patrol does not replace the various Neighborhood Watch programs, but greatly augments them.
Hunters Creek has a very large Neighborhood Watch program. As the Sheriffs Office Deputies always say, The best crime prevention device ever invented is a good neighbor. Hunters Creek has over 40 neighborhoods and continually promotes residents to help themselves by joining their Neighborhood Watch team to make this a safer community. We have yearly public meetings featuring several departments representing the Orange County Sheriffs Office. Specialists from the property crimes and robbery unit, gang unit, drug unit and of course Neighborhood Watch unit offer crime prevention tips to residents of the community.
An offshoot of our Neighborhood Watch program is our Community Alert Network (CAN). This alert network relays information, via e-mail, from the Hunters Creek Network Coordinator to their area captains, who contact their neighborhood captains, who contact their block captains, who contact their homeowners. A crime alert or emergency notice is passed along the Community Alert Network to let every neighborhood resident know that there may be a safety or security problem. To be included in this very important notification process we promote joining Neighborhood Watch because if you are not a part of your Neighborhood Watch, you are not a part of the Community Alert Network.
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Have your efforts led to a decrease in security-related incidents in your community? Please explain. |
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Law enforcement officers always say that the best way to protect the community is to have active neighbors looking out for one another. With our Neighborhood Watch program, COP, and off-duty deputies around, crime has reduced, but it hasn't completely gone away. If you check our Web site, we provide crime statistics for the area. |
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What steps have you taken to ensure that every resident is aware of security policy and procedures? |
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Every month our community magazine carries tips for crime prevention from one of our off-duty deputies. We always want to keep our residents on alert for any safety or security problem. We constantly advertise the Sheriffs non-emergency phone number as well as the need to use 911 during any emergency.
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You may include additional information about the community that you consider relevant to the topic. |
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All of these programs demonstrate the commitment of Hunters Creek residents to keeping our community safewhether its the Sheriffs car on the street or the volunteer COP cruising a neighborhood or a neighbor watching out for their neighbor. It shows a presence of neighbors watching out for neighbors. Some may call it nosey. We call it safety with the result of a very low crime rate.
We are always asked how many people are involved in security in Hunters Creek. Our answer is this: We appreciate every one of the hundreds who are included in our Safety and Security programs, but we never have enough.
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