Captain's Message
MESSAGE FROM THE CAPTAIN
ANTHONY LA BERGE
SANTA CLARITA VALLEY SHERIFF’S STATION
AUGUST 2007
Greetings!
I want to personally thank you for the very warm welcome I have received since assuming command of the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station earlier this year. I truly appreciate your good wishes, your input, and of course your support for our station personnel.
As a 20-year resident of Santa Clarita, I know the area and have always appreciated the close-knit feeling of this community. Since becoming your Sheriff’s Captain, I have had the opportunity to work closely with neighborhood groups, local businesses, organizations, individuals, and our elected officials in an effort to improve community safety, and begin to develop new and innovative programs and modalities that will accomplish this goal. Your suggestions and your support are invaluable to me as I work with my staff here at the Sheriff’s Station to prevent crime where we live and work. Over the last few months, we have put into place a number of improvements aimed at increasing community safety and awareness.
We are very pleased with the recent arrest and conviction of some prolific graffiti taggers who had plagued our valley and the region. Over the last few months, a small group of taggers was responsible for several hundred thousand dollars in property damage (throughout the region) and through arrests made of these individuals, they are now off the street and facing state prison time. In the next several months, we will be working with the City of Santa Clarita and the County of Los Angeles to further improve safety with the addition of new staff and programs.
One area we are focusing on is public awareness and media relations with regard to daily Sheriff’s Department activity here in Santa Clarita. Currently, we are providing a a daily information log to local media. In the coming months, we anticipate providing this information to the public via our new and improved Station website, which we plan to launch later this year.
With the City’s new budget (July 1, 2007), we anticipate adding new personnel, including a new deputy for patrol and a new sergeant to head up an innovative Business Alliance Program to provide for the law enforcement needs of our local businesses. This will allow our community relations team to focus even more on the residential side of law enforcement.
New technology will aid in the suppression of auto theft and improve our investigative data bases, enabling deputies to be more effective in arresting criminals committing robbery, burglary, and auto theft in our community. This new technology will also be instrumental in assisting our Department in keeping closer tabs on sexual registrants who reside in the Santa Clarita Valley; something our residents have told us they want us to do.
We are moving forward in expanding, enhancing, and developing community-based programs. We launched several aggressive educational campaigns involving various media outlets in an effort to help keep our community informed as to crime prevention tips and statistical awareness. All this is being done with the goal of urging everyone to get involved in some way with crime prevention efforts to help maintain the safest possible community. We must avoid being easy targets for criminal opportunists. The best way to deter crime is to work together and send a firm message to those considering committing crime in our community that we are involved and will not tolerate these unlawful acts.
As part of this effort, our Community Relations/Crime Prevention Unit launched the School Block Watch Program which is designed to give us extra eyes and ears near our schools to help deter crime in and around these educational facilities. The program is similar to that of the traditional Neighborhood Watch. As this program expands, it is our hope that it will deter crimes such as vandalism, graffiti, theft, and drug use that can disrupt the educational process. Look for the new signs in a neighborhood near you soon! We worked closely with the City of Santa Clarita to launch the Pull to the Right campaign which, through distribution of educational literature, will help improve public safety responses to emergencies and will make our roadways and emergency responses safer.
Some of you have contacted us regarding late night teenage house parties. At this time, we are working on "A Parents Guide to Teenage Parties and Dances,” an aggressive campaign which will include an informative brochure and will be launched to educate parents on how to best chaperone their teenagers’ parties.
Once again, I want to thank you for your support and your continued communication with the Department. I encourage you to get involved with our neighborhood and business watch programs which provide a high level of proactive safety education and empowerment.
Best regards,
Captain Anthony La Berge
Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff's Station
Chief of Police for the City of Santa Clarita
Links to Archives of Previous Captain's Messages
August 2007
