Neighborhood Watch Works Within the Law

* Your editorial “Residents Should Fight Crime--Not Each Other” (March 6) is misleading when it suggests that Neighborhood Watch groups begin when neighbors establish a planning committee, that they select their geographical boundaries and that they “keep police informed” of their activities.

Senior lead officers of the Police Department are assigned a geographic area to organize into Neighborhood Watch groups. They select police community representatives and assign each one a territory to organize. The representatives, under the guidance of their senior lead officers, conduct meetings and educate residents in crime prevention. They are trained and work as team members with the officers.

The police community representatives I know and work with don’t take the law into their own hands. They gather information that is forwarded to their senior lead officer, who makes the decision as to police involvement.

We don’t confront criminals. We don’t work outside the law. If we plan a course of action that goes beyond educating residents, it’s cleared with the police.

Mary Lou Holte acts alone. She does not represent police-sanctioned community-based policing. She is not assigned a territory, nor does she work with a senior lead officer.

The reward of community-based policing comes from hearing your neighbors say they feel safer--not from seeing your face on television or your name in newsprint.

ELLEN BAGELMAN

Police Community Representative

Van Nuys