Saratoga’s Neighborhood Watch credited with reducing crime
A Saratoga residential street displays their Neighborhood Watch sign. The city has experience an upswing in watch groups ever since city staff have made forming them a priority.
Saratoga’s Neighborhood Watch program is being credited with a significant downturn in home break-ins, with 30 residential burglaries reported so far this year.
Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Lieutenant Marc Lehmann provided that statistic and more at a Wednesday night briefing for Saratoga city leaders and residents.
There were 69 residential burglaries in 2017, he said. In contrast, 130 home break-ins were reported in 2016 and 123 in 2015.
“Saratoga’s biggest crime problem is burglaries,” Lehmann said. “A few years ago we weren’t getting enough calls about suspicious people and vehicles, so the Neighborhood Watch program has had a real impact.”
Beginning in 2016, the city made a concerted effort to get people involved with Neighborhood Watch and there are now 68 programs running.
“We’ve had an upsurge in 911 calls in the last two years and that has absolutely reduced the number of burglaries,” Lehmann said. “One of the biggest contributing factors is people’s willingness to pickup the phone.
That’s what happened last November, when two residents reported suspicious activity in their neighborhood.
“A person saw a car driving rapidly through a neighborhood and another person reported seeing two men coming out of a neighbor’s backyard with a laundry basket full of things like electronics and jewelry,” Lehmann said. “The white Mercedes they were driving was stolen and it ran out of gas, so they ditched the stolen property and made a run for it. We were able to pickup both individuals a couple of blocks away.”
In April, sheriff’s deputies arrested three people with outstanding warrants for burglary, narcotics and identity theft after receiving a Neighborhood Watch tip.
“They all went to jail,” Lehmann said.
The city is seeing drops in other types of crimes, as well. For example, three assaults have been reported so far this year, compared to 12 in 2017.
There have been six domestic violence crimes reported this year, while 2017 saw 20 incidents.
Also, eight auto burglaries are included in the 2018 statistics, most of which occurred in the downtown shopping and dining district, Lehmann said.
As a result, deputies on bikes will be patroling downtown this summer.