Editor, Manteca Bulletin,

A recent editorial challenged the community with being part of the solution in helping to reduce crime in Manteca, including supporting “Measure M“. While I support the idea, I believe there are additional ways to personally help the police and push down crime. 

 Safety starts at home. Organize a Neighborhood Watch. It doesn’t have to be formal to be effective. Auto theft is a big problem in Manteca. Make sure your cars are locked. Garage them if you can. Make sure your home is secured and use deterrence. Don’t leave ladders out. Use motion detector lights around the outside of your home. Just mounting a bell box for an alarm system on your exterior that is not hooked to an alarm can make a potential burglar go down the street. If you have a home alarm, use it when you are home and asleep. They have a bonus letting you know when an entry or exit via window or door is being made by the kids too. 

 While I am on kids, use a personal house curfew. Keep your alcohol in your control in a locked cabinet. Know where your kids are and exactly what they are doing. The police are not babysitters and should not see our kids on the street between the core hours of say midnight and 5 a.m. Nothing really good happens to kids during those hours. 

 If you own guns keep them in your control. Use a gun safe. Gun safes come in handy for locking up other small expensive items and documents. Consider making a “safe closet“. An interior closet with re-enforced walls of thick plywood held by long woodscrews on the interior with a dead bold lock. Put items such as prescribed drugs, cameras and computers in it. Mark expensive items with your driver’s license number so it stolen and recovered they can be returned. All these things help slow down criminals and deter crime and make the police more effective.

Paul A. Schmitt

Manteca