ABOUT US

Acres Watch was developed to fill the need for a local community-based watch effort for the Antelope Acres, CA community. Petty crime has been on the rise, including mailbox destruction and mail theft, burglary, general theft, and other crimes that could be alleviated or completely prevented by a quality neighborhood program.

• We are NOT affiliated with the local town council.
• We are NOT affiliated with local law enforcement.
• We ARE the eyes and ears for the Antelope Acres.

This gives us the autonomy to operate as we see fit, as a safe and effective organization and crime deterrant.

The biggest problem with law enforcement community watch programs is that they are rarely effective. They don't focus on community building or creating a communications network to aide in the rapid relay of data. Phone trees don't work. Facebook, Twitter, email lists don't work. When rapidly-changing real time situations are taking place, you need an immediate communications network between you and your neighbors. The police don't use Facebook to communicate between officers. We don't either.

The 2nd problem with law enforcement community watch programs is that they are loaded with bureaucracy and red tape. That is the only way government organizations know how to operate, and the same bureaucratic nonsense is brought to the community watch programs. They are more concerned with titles, ranks, and insignia than they are the actual protection of the community. You need Block Captains, Block Captain Captains, Area Captains, Area Commanders, Community Watch Sergeants and Liutenants. WTF? How do titles, ranks, and insignia help protect the community? They are too concerned with extensive training, meetings, ice cream socials (no joke!), and other nonsense instead of focusing on actual crime.

If you are looking to add another title to your résumé, or you are looking to get a cool bright yellow reflective police vest, this is not the organization for you. We are not looking for people who don't know how to function outside of the bureaucracy of the other neighborhood watch programs. We are looking for people who want to make a difference in our community.

When every second counts police are just minutes away. It is not known by many, but the LASD has had established Response Time Thresholds for several years. The acceptable response times are as follows:

• Emergency Calls: 10 Minutes
• Priority Calls: 20 Minutes
• Routine Calls: 60 Minutes

And here in the Antelope Acres, those response times are rarely, if ever, met. Rural response times are well-known to exceed those thresholds, often significantly, and Antelope Acres is no exception. Response times routinely range from 30+ minutes for emergency calls, to over 30 days for Priority/Routine Calls. There have been documented incidents where deputies never show up at all...ever. This is not intended to be a knock on law enforcement, as the travel time alone to our community is considerable, from where the majority of deputies are located, in the City of Lancaster. Increased response times are to be expected.

Through community awareness we can help create a safe community for all our residents. If just 10% of Antelope Acres residents would participate, we would have more personnel than the entire Antelope Valley LASD. Criminals generally commit their acts when people are not watching. Often, the presence of other people is enough to deter crime, and send the criminal somewhere else.