SACRAMENTO-

Sacramento Police hosted a special neighborhood watch meeting for Oak Park residents. It was one of the first seminars held outside of south Sacramento, after Chief Samuel Somers expanded the initiative to service the entire city.

Diane Buffington, who owns property in Oak Park, was eager to learn about community safety. She said she wants to start an official neighborhood watch group for her area.

“There are a lot of empty houses, vacant houses, and the squatters go in there and stay,” Buffington said. “That was a problem on my street, and I want to see that go away.”

There are currently about 360 active neighborhood watch groups in the City of Sacramento, none of which are in Oak Park.

“When people are connected, they care about each other,” Jena Swafford, Dispatch Supervisor of Sacramento Police Department, said. “Quite simply, if you care about your neighbors, you are more apt to notice when something is out of place.”

They are teaching people, not to become “Big Brother.” Rather, they hope to teach the skills to become the eyes and ears of their own communities, especially after the downturn of the economy forced the department to cut 200 field officer positions.

“The Department shrunk down in size, but the population has not,” Executive Lt. Glenn Faulkner of the Sacramento Police Department East Command, said. “The problems haven’t gone away. In fact, they’ve gotten bigger.”

A 2008 U.S. Justice Department study showed, areas with a neighborhood watch group saw on average, a 16% decrease in crime. Barbara Falcon, Neighborhood Watch Coordinator for the Sacramento Police Department, said one of the biggest success stories was Boston.

“The Boston Marathon was a great example of people in one town texting, video taping, partnering with police, and they caught the bad guy,” Falcon said. “And that’s what we want to do.”

Renters, immigrant families, and younger residents are generally less committed to their neighborhoods. But with social media, there is no more excuse.

“Everyone uses it,” Robert Jimenez, Criminal Justice student at Sacramento State University, said. “All the young people use it.”

In 2012, the City of Sacramento became increasingly social media-friendly. They created apps, and partnered with Nextdoor.com, an area-based virtual neighborhood watch tool. With many tools like these, Buffington said she and her neighbors are ready to launch their group.

“I want to see the crime go down, and the neighborhood come back and blossom,” Buffington said.

There will be several other monthly seminars like this hosted around the city.