This is a summary of the March 5th Coffee Time Meeting for Sun Valley:

Officer Wall introduced Traffic Officer Flores. Officer Flores heard from several community members of troublesome places where folks run stop signs, red lights and speed. He took notes and will try to investigate these locations. He also said there had been 19 fatalities in the LAPD Foothill Division’s area last year and 8 of those were in Sun Valley. If you have concerns, Officer Flores email is: 30658@lapd.online.

Officer Flores also said that as of Feb. 28th, paper plates will no longer be allowed, and all dealership will issue temporary licenses with a number and has the car’s vin number on it.

In the month of Feb., 13 burglaries took place in the Glencrest Hills area. The criminals seem to go right to the bedroom in search of money and jewelry. In some cases they got nothing, in other cases they were quite “successful.” They are in and out in less than 5 minutes. In these sort of burglaries, usually there is a single individual who drives around and “cases” the neighborhood for houses that appear unoccupied. This person will call on their cell to the burglars and tell them the address of the house to hit.

Officer Wall gave the following tips to help prevent burglaries (in regard to the 13 that occurred in February in the Glencrest Hills area.)

1. Lock your breaker box. Though some security systems have battery back up, the burglars have always tried to turn off all power to the house in effort to disable alarms, cameras, and perhaps to see if someone comes out of the house to see why their power went out.

2. Lock all side and/or back gates. Just try to make it harder on the criminals to get to your backyard. The burglars in all instances gained entry to the victims’ houses by smashing the read sliding glass door and walking through the broken glass. Ask your alarm company to install a shatter glass sensor (to detect the sound of breaking glass.)

3. Make it look like you are HOME! Turn on outside lights, turn on inside lights (you can put them on timers). All houses had no lights on when they were burglarized and in every instance, no one was home.

4. Call 911 for suspicious people in the area. If you see someone in a car that looks like they are casing the area, call it in. The police do not mind and welcome your attention.

5. NEVER, NEVER, NEVER confront suspicious people. These are professional criminals and they will win. If you can get a photo of them from a safe location, or of their car/license, then do that, but never take a chance with your safety! Any photos or videos please send to: SLO Richard Wall – 30204@lapd.online, and also to LAPD Detective Josh Wade – 37417@lapd.online. Detective Wade has been assigned to our burglaries. Tell them your name, address, date and time of day your photo/video was taken. Any other pertinent information would be important. They are determined to catch these guys and a lot of LAPD resources have been added.

6. Previously, during our last Glencrest Hills meeting, LAPD Detective Le advised everyone to not leave your ID where burglars can easily get it (like leaving your purse by a sliding glass door!)

7. Do not leave anything of value in your car! Keep the doors locked at all times.

8. Meet and get to know your neighbors. If you are going on a trip/vacation, let them know.

Phil Tabbi, co-chair of the Community Police Advisory Board mentioned that it would be great to get some volunteers for the Citizen Volunteer Patrol. After a full background check, you will be trained, you will have a patrol car, and wear a uniform. Anything suspicious you will call in. Citizen Volunteers also run errands such as picking up security footage from a store, etc. They serve so our police’s time is better spent on the streets. If you are interested, please send an email to 41265@lapd.online.

If you ever observe street racing, please email vtpset@lapd.online, with location, time and date.

Just a reminder from Lorraine Diaz, Field Deputy for our Councilmember Paul Krekorian (CD2), if you would like additional street lighting and have a wooden power pole, please email her with the address of the pole and if you can see that there is a number on a metal plate, also include that. Lorraine.diaz@lacity.org.

If you see trash dumped or a homeless encampment somewhere, please take a photo of it if possible and contact the city via the MyLA311 app (on Apple & Google Play). The city sends someone out right away to assess the need. FYI, if it is below 50 degrees or raining, the city will not ask the homeless to leave.