Detective Keith Eisenhour of the Simi Valley Police Department will give a presentation on identity theft from 11 a.m. to noon Thurs., June 11 at the Simi Valley Senior Center, 3900 Avenida Simi.

Eisenhour will discuss the latest trends in ID theft and how seniors can protect themselves.

A question and answer time will follow.

For more information or a reservation, call (805) 583-6363.

This was a press release put out by Waste Management. -SVPF

Waste Management Honored by Simi Valley Police Foundation

Company and Director of Operations receive the Simi Valley Police Foundation’s 2008-2009 Founder’s Award

http://keepingventuracountyclean.com/022609.html


Simi Valley, CA, February 26, 2009 - On Friday, February 13th, the Simi Valley Police Foundation honored Waste Management at the 11th annual Foundation banquet with the 2008-2009 Founder’s Award and a City of Simi Valley Resolution signed by the Mayor and Council Members.

The annual award recognizes significant contributors that promote the overall well being for the community and individuals for their dedication to the mission of the foundation. WM received a standing ovation as City Councilmember Glen Becerra presented the award to Mike Smith, Director of Operations for Waste Management.

"Waste Management has been a great supporter of the Simi Valley Police Foundation for many years. It is a pleasure to be able to recognize the company and Mike Smith for all their help and numerous contributions," said Sharon Romano, Simi Valley Police Foundation President.

"We are honored to receive this prestigious award and be recognized by our community partners. Waste Management is proud to have served the needs of the Simi Valley community for over 30 years and our employees dedicate themselves to providing quality service and volunteering in the community," said Mike Smith. Smith serves as a Boardmember on the Foundation.

The Simi Valley Police Foundation sustains a partnership with the City’s Police Department to identify and develop programs to make Simi Valley a safe place to live. The Foundation supports community programs, including the K-9 Program, Drug Assistance and Resistance Education (D.A.R.E), the CrimeStoppers Program and the Citizen’s Patrol Program.

The Simi Valley Police Foundation supports the Every 15 Minutes program with a grant each year. -SVPF

http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2009/mar/12/no-headline---nxxec15minutes12/

Simi Valley Police Officer Robert Longdon stepped into a classroom at Royal High School on Wednesday morning and informed the students that one of their classmates had been killed in a drunken driving accident.

The same announcement was made over the school’s public address system, while elsewhere in Simi Valley, Valerie Ross was being told by a police chaplain that her daughter was dead.

But Kelly Ross, 16, actually was alive and well in the school assembly hall, along with 23 other students who had been chosen to “die” as part of the Every 15 Minutes campaign against drinking and driving.

“I feel good because I am raising awareness,” Kelly Ross said. “It’s good for people to realize that life goes away quick.”

Throughout the day Wednesday, students, staff, parents, local law enforcement and emergency responders role-played the effects and consequences of drinking and driving.

Today, students will gather to watch video coverage of Wednesday’s events, which included a visit to the morgue and a teen on trial at the city courthouse for driving under the influence.

It’s a brutal exercise in “what if,” but for Harriet Hunsaker, a member of Royal High’s PTA who organized the two-day event, it’s a lesson better served cold.

“We want this to be a wake-up call and to be kind of a shock to them,” she said.

Four students were chosen by school counselors to take part in a simulated car crash every 15 minutes that would leave one teen “dead,” two “injured” and another “under arrest” for driving under the influence.

“I actually go through the windshield, so I’m dead on scene,” said Nicole Houghton, 16, who was made up to look as if she had a bone protruding from her right arm and a bloody wound on the right side of her head. “It’s going to be intense.”

Houghton’s best friend, Katie Bannon, 16, played the driver of the car hit by the drunken driver and had a fake piece of glass sticking out of her forehead.

“We’ve been friends since preschool and it was hard when we were putting the makeup on, because even though we knew it wasn’t real, I couldn’t look at her,” Houghton said. “It’s definitely realistic.”

The 1300 block of Arcane Street, adjacent to the high school’s playing fields, was blocked off by law enforcement Wednesday morning as police officers, firefighters and paramedics responded to the mock two-car collision.

Ventura County Fire Department Capt. Charlie Sullenbarger orchestrated the arrival of an engine and ladder truck and the rescue of teens trapped in the crashed cars.

“Drinking and driving is a reality that our society faces every day,” Sullenbarger said.

“It’s a whole life-changing event from seeing it, participating in it — the aftereffects of someone dying who’s young and has the whole world just in front of them. It’s a life-altering event that people never forget.”

About 1,200 students watched from bleachers as the exercise unfolded, and although there were some who sniggered and giggled, the majority watched silently, focused on the faux tragedy.

When a hearse from Reardon Simi Valley Funeral Home arrived to collect Houghton, covered with a body bag, the audience could have heard a pin drop.

That silence, organizers hoped, indicated the message was beginning to hit home.

“I hope they take it to heart and not think it’s a joke just because it’s make-believe,” Longdon said. “When we’re going to accidents and dealing with DUI drivers, all the time they don’t learn a lesson until after it’s too late.”

On the Net:

http://www.every15minutes.com

The Simi Valley Police Foundation will hold its 11th annual banquet Feb. 13, an evening of romance and roses at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library Education Center.

The banquet will start with a reception at 6 p.m. Dinner will be served at 7:15 p.m., to be followed by a special awards presentation, live auction and entertainment with The Tony Maddox Band.

The center will be transformed into a romantic oasis, and we are serving an exquisite meal, said Sharon Romano, president of the foundation

Guests will have the opportunity to bid on such items as a trip to Ireland and a kids' birthday party in a jail cell at the Simi Valley police station.

Banquet tickets are $110 per person or $2,000 for a VIP table of 10. Tickets can be purchased online at http://www.svpf.org.

For information about sponsorship opportunities, call 581-2743.

Proceeds from the event will help fund such programs as K-9s, Citizens Patrol, D.A.R.E., and Citizens Academy.

http://venturacountystar.com/news/2009/feb/01/foundation-will-host-evening-romance/

Show the police foundation some love
Valentine's Day is theme for this year's banquet


The 11th annual Simi Valley Police Foundation Banquet will be Fri., Feb. 13 at the Reagan Library Education Center, 40 Presidential Drive, Simi Valley.

The event, which this year is held in honor of Valentine's Day, starts with a reception at 6 p.m. and dinner at 7:15 p.m., followed by an awards presentation, live auction and entertainment by the Tony Maddox Band.

Live auction items include a trip to Ireland and a children's birthday party in a jail cell at the Simi Valley Police Station.

Banquet tickets are $110 per person or $2,000 for a VIP table of 10.

Proceeds from the event will help to fund programs such as K-9 unit, Citizens' Patrol, DARE and Citizens' Academy.

To purchase tickets, send a check to the Valley Police Foundation, P.O. Box 715, Simi Valley, CA 93062-0715, or buy tickets online at www.svpf.org.

For information about sponsorship opportunities, call (805) 581-2743

http://www.simivalleyacorn.com/news/2009/0130/community/019.html

Crime down in Simi in '08
By Carissa Marsh cmarsh@theacorn.com
http://www.simivalleyacorn.com/news/2009/0123/front_page/002.html

Reports of property crimes dropped 16 percent in Simi Valley in 2008, according to statistics released last week by the police department, part of a 14.9 percent drop in overall crime.

Following the national reporting standards set forth by the FBI, the Simi Valley police report on Part I crimes includes statistics on violent crimes (homicide, rape, robbery, assault) and property crimes (larceny, burglary, auto theft and arson).

Police Chief Mike Lewis called the decrease in property crimes a success for the department, which had seen an increase of 13.2 percent in the same category in 2007. There were 384 fewer property crimes reported in the city in 2008.

"To put it in context, that's one less crime a day for the entire year," Lewis said. "For us that was pretty significant since in 2007 the property crimes were really up there. We were pleased we were able to . . . drive those downward."

Lewis said the department was able to reduce property crimes by tracking trends in the community and directing officers to patrol high-crime areas in the city. More officers were put on the street during days or hours generally associated with an increase in criminal activity.

Educating both private citizens and local businesses on how to avoid crimes of opportunity also aided the police department, Lewis said.

"The simple answer to preventing property crimes is to remove the attractive item from view, lock your car, lock your residence and make it very secure," he said. "That is the No. 1 thing the community can do to help the police department . . . just taking that few extra seconds to be diligent."

The number of violent crimes reported in the city increased by just one in 2008.

There were 10 more incidents of aggravated assault, and the number of homicides in the city doubled from two in 2007 to four last year, the highest number recorded in Simi Valley in a single year since 2001, when there were six reported murders.

But combined with a drop in cases of rape and robbery, the statistics show that only one more violent crime was reported in Simi in 2008 than in 2007.

The spontaneous nature of violent crimes makes them nearly impossible to predict or prevent, Lewis said.

But the city is no less safe than it was in 2007, the chief maintained.

"The fact that we went from two homicides to four homicides has not really affected the safety of the community," Lewis said. "None of them were gangrelated, so it is not an indication of a resurgence of gang activity, and I would say the same thing of the aggravated assault."

All four suspects in each homicide case have been arrested and all but one—who is out on bail and awaiting trial—are in custody, Lewis said.

"We solved all four of them in a short period of time," he added. "That's a true compliment to our investigators."

While the number of reported burglaries, stolen vehicles and thefts decreased, arson cases jumped from nine in 2007 to 23 last year.

Lewis said the majority of reported arson incidents were not home fires but vending machine fires. He said they were a result of individuals using a burning device in an attempt to break into the machines and steal the money stored inside.

Lewis noted the number of arrests for both property and violent crimes increased 3 percent.

Simi Valley officers handed out 10,814 traffic tickets in 2008, nearly 300 more than they did in 2007, a fact the chief said helped lead to a 12.5 percent drop in the number of reported accidents.

"The citations are up but it had the desired effect that it also drove down the accident ratio," Lewis said. "The citations remind everyone that they need to drive safely, slow down and use a little extra caution."

Police personnel responded to 44,429 calls for service last year, a 4 percent drop from 2007. The report said officers are maintaining an average 4½minute response time to emergency calls and have lowered their response time to routine calls by nearly two minutes from 16.6 to 14.8.

The department's implementation of a mobile report writing system has allowed officers to stay responsive to the community's needs, Lewis said.

The electronic system enables officers to type up and submit incident reports on a laptop in their patrol vehicle instead of coming back to the station.

Lewis reiterated that the community is safer now than it was 20 years ago, despite the fact that the population has increased dramatically.

"Even in the short term, our crimes have actually gone down 12 percent in the last five years," he said.

Last week, on Thursday, September 18th and Friday, September 19th, the Santa Clara Sheriff’s Department hosted the annual “Best In The West” S.W.A.T. Competition at the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Training Facility in San Jose, California. This is the largest annual invitational S.W.A.T. competition in the Western United States.

Each year, members of the Santa Clara Sheriff’s Department’s Emergency Response Team design, physically construct, and run an intensive two-day competition, pitting Special Weapons and Tactic (S.W.A.T.) teams from all over the West against each other, in a multi-jurisdictional learning experience unequaled in this part of the country. The competition included numerous variations and twists designed to keep returning teams challenged to the utmost. The competition is tough and tests the physical ability and proficiency of the teams and this year’s competition was no exception.

Twenty-five teams, totaling 150 individual competitors, vied for the sought after title of the “Best In The West” S.W.A.T. Team. Some of the major S.W.A.T. Teams competing were: California Highway Patrol, San Francisco P.D., San Jose P.D., BART (San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit Police Department), Reno Police Department, Department of Energy Livermore, and the U.S. Air Force Security Squadron. Additionally, several Sheriff's Departments' tactical teams and police department teams from across the state competed, many of which are full-time S.W.A.T. Teams.

The Simi Valley Police Department’s S.W.A.T. Team, which is comprised of twenty Officers whose assignment to S.WA.T. is ancillary to their primary assignment, finished in second place overall for the second year in a row. In addition to the Team award, Officer Dave Hodgson finished in first place in the individual Shotgun Course and Officer Tom Chapple finished fourth in the Combined Weapons Course.


These same Simi Valley Officers had competed earlier that same week in the 14th Annual Ventura S.W.A.T. Competition and finished in third place. There were 14 S.W.A.T. Teams competing in that event from all across Southern California. Chief Mike Lewis said, “The S.W.A.T. Team is to be congratulated for its success in these events and recognized for its commitment to strenuous and intensive preparation in order to be ready to respond to any situation which may occur in our community.”

The Simi Valley Police Department S.W.A.T. Team's participation in these events was made possible by financial assistance received from the Simi Valley Police Foundation.

Simi Valley police will host an open house Sept. 20 to mark the station's 10th anniversary.

Residents are invited to join City Council members, Chief of Police Mike Lewis and the rest of the department in celebrating the event at 3901 Alamo St.

Tours of the facility will be conducted throughout the day, along with demonstrations by the canine unit, disaster service workers and the bomb squad, police said.

Mayor Paul Miller will preside over a ribbon-cutting ceremony, unveiling the Simi Valley Police Department Historical Committee's exhibit depicting the department's history.

The Simi Valley Police Foundation will host a family-style barbecue, and members of the Simi Valley Elks Lodge will serve food and drinks.

The crime prevention unit will hold drawings for several bicycles, helmets and vehicle security locks.

Static displays will include SWAT equipment, police motorcycles and the department's mobile command center. For more information, call Sgt. Adam Darough at 583-6929.

Simi Valley Police Officer Vince Allegra and his canine partner Rocco were awarded first place overall in the novice division in last month's Redondo Beach Police Canine Trials.

This year, 28 police canine teams from across California participated in the 21st annual competition.

In their second year together at the competition, Allegra and Rocco were challenged in the areas of obedience, agility, narcotics detection, suspect searches, suspect apprehension and canine handler protection.

Last year, they were awarded first place in the Tactical Obedience portion of the event.

Allegra and his first canine partner, Hasko, won awards at the Redondo Beach trials in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005 and 2006, as well as one bronze and two silver medals in the 2005 World Police and Fire Games in Canada.

Allegra is a 12-year Simi Police Department veteran and has been a canine handler for eight years.