On Aug. 5th, the Vista Sherrif’s Department hosted a meeting at Olive Elementary School to inform neighbors about crimes taking place in the neighborhood. The Automated Regional Justice Information System which compiles crime information throughout San Diego County showed that at least 563 incidents were reported within a mile of Olive Elementary School between Jan. 1st and July 31st of this year.
The Sherrif’s Department hosted the meeting to urge neighborhood residents to fight back by joining together and looking out for each other. The Deputies asked the comunity to create a neighborhood watch team, and the residents responded very positively.
Most of the residents attending the meeting said that they had no idea about the number of crimes taking place in their neighborhood. Now that they were aware, they would band together to do something about it. The Deputies also said that lack of community knowledge is more common today than in the past when neighbors routinely shared information and gossip.
By the end of the meeting, people were starting to talk together to form a watch group. This neighborhood meeting is just one more example of why Vista is such a good area to live in People come together and care about where they live and work and will work together to create safe areas to live in.