Neighborhood Watch programs more crucial than ever, expert says

By Karen Billing

In the last week, San Diego communities were rocked by the tragedy of Chelsea King, a 17-year-old girl who disappeared after going for a run in a Rancho Bernardo park. Days after Chelsea’s body was found, authorities discovered the body of Amber Dubois, a 14-year-old who had gone missing a year earlier on her way home from school.
Aaron Johnson, founder of the Carmel Valley Neighborhood Watch website, said the incidents hit close to home and remind everyone how important it is to keep eyes open on what’s going on in your neighborhood.
“It’s so sad that it has to take a tragedy for people’s awareness to be heightened,” said Johnson, who owns his own security company. “It should be heightened all the time, there should never be a time when it’s not.”
Johnson said even though Carmel Valley may be considered an affluent community, there are dangerous people out there looking for opportunities to take advantage of a neighborhood lulled into a false sense of security.
Last February, a pair of home invasion robberies and assaults left Carmel Valley on edge and Johnson was vocal about the benefits of having a Neighborhood Watch. He started cvnwp.com in July as a way for watches to communicate information and find tips on how to keep communities safe.
“Surprisingly, it’s been getting a lot of traffic, a lot of people are interested in becoming a part of it,” said Johnson, who is the block captain for his Pacific Highlands Ranch neighborhood. “The goal is to get more Carmel Valley neighborhoods active in reporting and sharing information.”
Since July, when Johnson last visited with the Carmel Valley News, he has recruited 45 new volunteers to be block captains in their neighborhoods.
By the end of the month, Johnson hopes to have an instant e-mail function on the website where users can sign up to receive alerts on an incident in the neighborhood, such as the man who was seen stalking children in Rancho Santa Fe and Carmel Valley neighborhoods last week.
The Neighborhood Watch site gets alerts and news watches from Officer Gaylon Sells, the public information officer at Carmel Valley’s Northwestern Division, watch block captains or from local schools alert systems.
One trend Johnson is seeing is home burglaries that appear to be committed by outside contractors or handymen.
“We really need to do our homework on people that come in to do work in our homes,” Johnson said.
He hopes his website will help people do their homework, the website is building a referral page for workers that neighbors have used and trust. The website has several postings on trustworthy workers who do landscape, cabinetry, garage and storage design, and handyman work. Johnson would love to have more.
“It’s not where we want it to be at right now, we need more people to come and post referrals,” Johnson said.
In light of the Chelsea King tragedy, Johnson said that his Pacific Highlands Ranch Neighborhood Watch group is going to start patrolling the Gonzales Canyon Trail in his neighborhood more often. He said a lot of people enjoy jogging on the trail and they want to make sure it is safe. With daylight savings coming this Sunday, people might be out on the trails later in the evening, that’s when they hope to boost their patrol.
Johnson is organizing a Child Safety Fair promoted by the website and MMA, a Sorrento Valley business that offers self defense classes. They are aiming to hold the fair in late April — watch cvnwp.com for details.