The Greater Toluca Lake Neighborhood Watch is organized by street, assigning a neighbor as a Street Captain. Part of the success of this program depends on expedient and effective communications. In other words, if someone sees suspicious behavior they would:
- Report it to the LAPD by calling 911 for an emergency situation, or by calling 1 877-ASK-LAPD for a non-emergency.
- They should communicate this to their Street Captain.
- The Street Captain will, in turn, report it to the neighbors on their street and to Steve Hampar or Janice Eaton, the Neighborhood Watch Lead Captains.
- Lead Captains Hampar or Eaton will then report it to the other Street Captains.
- The other Street Captains will report it to the neighbors on their street.
Conversely the communication could work in reverse in that our Senior Lead Officer may contact the Lead Watch Captains with some activity going on in Toluca Lake, who in turn will report to all the Street Watch Captains, who will report it to their neighbors. At a minimum, the Lead Watch Captains will email the Street Watch Captains the monthly crime stats for North Hollywood.
The monthly crime stats show all activity in a very broad area of North Hollywood. We are focusing more on the Toluca Lake area as set forth by the Map Boundaries. Streets highlighted in yellow indicate there is an assigned Street Watch Captain. We currently have roughly 45 Street Watch Captains throughout the Greater Toluca Lake area. The first area to start up was in West Toluca Lake 25 years ago, headed by Harry Flynn. They have had quarterly meetings for many years, and as a result of their continued efforts the crime in West Toluca Lake is one of the lowest in the East Valley!