Other community outreach programs include Neighborhood Watch, Operation ID, the Graffiti Reward Program, Scared Safe and the Citizen's Police Academy. Neighborhood Watch and Operation ID go hand in hand to keep individual homes and streets safer. By simply getting to know each other and by marking their property, neighbors participate in the most basic of crime prevention programs. These two programs provide for safer streets and neighborhoods by letting people know they can count on each other. The Graffiti Reward Program strikes at the root of gang activity and the graffiti that defaces our community.
Experts recognize that the graffiti is a means for gang members to communicate.
The reward program combined with a City ordinance requiring removal of the graffiti within 24 hours helps us to discourage this activity. A community service program organized through the Municipal Court allows young people to clean up the graffiti as part of their community service. The Scared Safe Crime Prevention program provides a hands-on crime prevention message. Lecture is combined with role-play to give participants a real feeling for how they will react in a crime situation. By utilizing a more interactive program, people better remember the crime prevention lessons taught.