Many Pleasanton residents have probably heard of Neighborhood Watch, a national program where neighbors team up to keep an eye out for each other and prevent crime from happening in their neighborhood. The program has been such a success that local businesses are now getting into the act by forming a new Business Watch program.
“It’s just like Neighborhood Watch in that it’s an opportunity to share information, either the police department sharing information with businesses or businesses talking to each other,” said Officer Penelope Tamm, who works in the police department’s Youth and Community Services Bureau and leads both the Neighborhood and Business Watch programs.
The program started about four months ago and so far includes the businesses in the downtown area, as organized by the Pleasanton Downtown Association (PDA), and the Pepsi Corporation office on Stoneridge Mall Road, Tamm said.
“We contacted Penelope wanting to find ways to give tips to our members and to work more closely with the police department,” said Christine Salidivar, executive director of the PDA. Although the downtown is a safe area, businesses do have problems with crime, Salidivar said. Knowing that other cities had tried a Business Watch program, including Dublin, and had seen success, Tamm suggested they try to organize one in Pleasanton. The program mainly focuses on giving businesses safety tips and helping owners get to know each others’ schedules so they can look out for each other.
“Right now we pass information through e-news and e-letters that include tips, like locking cash registers if you’re helping a customer in the back of the store. Simple things like that, but things that take a reminder,” Salidivar said.
The tips usually come from real situations that have occurred at the downtown businesses, but could have been prevented. They range from putting in a special chime so workers in the back of a store will know when someone has entered to making sure employees lock up their valuables in areas away from customers. Most of the tips relate to ways of preventing shoplifting, since that is the most common crime in the downtown area, Salidivar said.
“Every business is affected by shoplifting and, because we want them to thrive and do well, these tips help them stop problems that undercut their business,” Salidivar said.
Tamm said opening the lines of communication and making sure everyone is on the same page is the most important aspect of the Business Watch.
“We always need to communicate,” Tamm said. “Even if the Business Watch just provides an avenue for communication, I think that’s important. It gives businesses a quick way to get a hold of us and share relevant information.”
