To make sure homes and businesses are secure from hazards and criminals, the Department of Public Safety's Crime Prevention Unit educates residents about how they can keep themselves from becoming victims.

Supervising Lt. Marty Dale heads the Crime Prevention Unit, which includes four neighborhood resource officers, two community service officers and a number of crime prevention assistants.

One of the unit's main activities is to visit neighborhood groups to discuss safety concerns and assist in the establishment of neighborhood watch programs.

On Jan. 25, the Charles Street 100 Neighborhood Association held such a meeting with a member of the crime prevention unit.

Association president Monica Draganowski-Davis said while their neighborhood has been free of crime lately, the residents wanted to talk about safety before it was a pressing issue.

"We wanted to learn more about what we could do to keep our neighborhood safe, as far as a neighborhood watch goes, and the officer had some really good ideas," Draganowski-Davis said. "I wish more of the neighbors had participated, but the problem is that until there's a problem, no one wants to be proactive."

By having the meeting, Draganowski-Davis said the neighborhood can now get official "Neighborhood Watch" signs put up in the area.

Dale said that rather than setting up and running neighborhood watch programs--as was the standard in the past--the department wants to act more as a catalyst by helping the program start and then letting it run independently.

In addition, the unit's crime prevention assistants perform regular site security inspections on homes and businesses in Sunnyvale to identify ways to make buildings safer.

Some common safety precautions include making sure doors and windows are locked and trimming back bushes--especially around doors and windows--that could hide trouble.

"As they walk up to their door, any number of people or things could be waiting for them," Dale said.

Even in tech-savvy Sunnyvale, sometimes safety just means making sure electronic devices have power.

"Time after time after time, we go to houses of very intelligent people and find smoke-alarm batteries that haven't been changed since Ford was president," Dale said.

Another complication comes from the number of recent immigrants from parts of the world with different safety and security practices.

"Sometimes, for people coming to America for the first time, dealing with the crime issues in America can be a wake-up call," Dale said.

But in case crimes do happen, and items are lost or stolen, the unit also helps residents recover those items by engraving identification numbers into items such as home electronics and other valuables. If those items are recovered, the ID numbers can then be traced to their owners.

"Your chances of recovery are probably increased tenfold because you can't identify something as stolen if you can't identify it at all," Dale said.

All services are free and available by appointment.

For more information or to schedule an appointment, call 408.730.7140.