As Tara mentions below, the police in Venice and throughout LA are over-extended, and even if they weren’t it behooves us to reach out within our communities more and find ways to be supportive and help each other. In that spirit, I thought I’d share the LAPD’s Crisis Response Team recruitment announcement I got recently. It’s not close to the neighborhood watch idea that Tara is talking about, but it is one way to possibly make a difference and to help your neighbors cope with traumatic events like homicides, suicides, and serious accidents. The CRT “provides immediate on-scene crisis intervention, attends to survival and comfort needs, and acts as a liaison between the victim and emergency personnel,” among other duties. The trainings run from 6:30 to 9:30 Tuesday and Thursday nights February 2 through March 25 and cover topics such as crisis intervention, suicide aftermath support, and working with diverse populations. More information and an application are available on the LAPD website.