Making Lake Forest Even Safer

The crime rate in Lake Forest has been at historic lows for the past 4 years, and on a comparative basis, we now have one of the lowest crime rate cities in Orange County. But that doesn’t mean we can’t do better. Next week I will be meeting with one of the largest suppliers of door front communication systems in an attempt to develop an online neighborhood watch as well as door front monitoring.

If you’re not already familiar with these type of systems, they are characterized by

• Wireless cameras record what’s happening
• The data is saved so you can review
• Connection to your phone so you can monitor real-time
• Able to communicate through your phone to whoever is at your front door

Some have night vision, spotlight capabilities, and other bells and whistles.

The most popular systems include Ring, Arlo, and Vivint.

I’m going to ask one of these major suppliers to work with Lake Forest in making our city safer. I want them to engage in both the residential and the business side and I want them to not merely help keep individual homes/businesses safe, but to also help patrol for crimes using a neighborhood approach.

In advance of the meeting, I want to get some sense of what people want. For example –

• If you don’t already have a system, are you interested in purchasing one at a discount?
• Will you need help installing the system, and how much are you willing to pay for the help?
• Do you want video surveillance of your street?
• If the Police believe that your system may have captured a crime or a criminal suspect, do you want to allow the Police access to your system? If so, how do you want to control their access?
• Do you want to get an alert whenever there is a crime within a mile or your home? Where do you want the alert? home phone? mobile phone? computer?

I’m setting up a series of questions on Lake Forest Town Square where you will be able to answer these questions.

I believe that working with one of these systems we can dramatically improve our safety and reduce crime.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Jim Gardner is on the City Council for Lake Forest where he serves as Mayor. You can check him out on LinkedIn and/or Facebook and you can share your thoughts about the City at Lake Forest Town Square on Facebook His comments are not meant to reflect official City Policy.

Dr. Gardner has office hours every Tuesday from 4 pm to 6 pm at the City Hall. In addition, he holds a town hall meeting every quarter. The next meeting will be Oct 18 at 7 pm at the Lake 1 Clubhouse (Ridge Route).