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Published on 08/05/1996 All articles from this issue

Full moon doesn't mean high crime in city

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By Joanne Griffith Domingue / Town Crier Staff Writer

Cop shop chat suggests that a full moon can bring a busy night for police officers. To see what happens locally, Town Crier staff photographer Monique Schoenfeld and I rode along with the Los Altos police July 30, which was a hot night with a full moon.

"(The numbers of) burglaries go down with a full moon," said my driver, Los Altos police officer Don Payton. "The bad guys don't like the bright lights."

Crime may not go up with a full moon, he said, but he's known things to get strange.

Schoenfeld and I didn't see much crime or anything strange. But we did watch community policing at work.

In front of Adamant Mart on Los Altos Avenue, a man on a bicycle shwooshed past us.

"He didn't stop for a stop sign," Payton said. "Right in front of an officer." He pulled over the biker who had a "who, me?" look on his face.

"I live on this road, and I never stop for stop signs," he said.

After Payton reviewed bicycle laws with the cyclist, we drove off, with no citation.

"Policing is more than giving tickets," Payton said.

A silver 528i BMW blazed by, going 40 in a 25 mph zone, and then rolled through a stop sign.

Payton pulled over the driver who was just shy of his 18th birthday.

The youth had a clean record, didn't argue, so "a warning's good enough," Payton said. "Not giving tickets is good PR (public relations). We're not always the bad guy, especially if they (the youth) learn.

"I don't give attitude citations. People who admit they did something wrong," like this youth, Payton said, are different from those who deny or lie about being wrong, "especially if they endanger their safety or the safety of others."

The dispatcher called Payton to a 211, an armed robbery, at Citibank in downtown Los Altos. The call came to police communications from the alarm company that reported the silent alarm was tripped.

It was a false alarm, set off by janitors inside washing windows.

"We have lots and lots of false alarms," Payton said. "Some restaurants have panic buttons inside their walk-in freezers. Boxes fall over and set off the alarms."

But Payton still responded to the call as though it could be the real thing. "Always expect the unexpected," he said.

A gold Camero passed us, with no brake lights, on El Camino Real. "That's a big safety thing," Payton said, as he pulled over the Camero. He discovered the driver had two prior driving offenses and a suspended license.

"He's a pedestrian" now, Payton said. The car was towed. "Since it's a safe area, and he's a block from home, we let him walk.

"That's the cause of 11 percent of accidents, people driving with suspended licenses," Payton said.

Schoenfeld and I swapped cars at 10 p.m., and I rode with Los Altos Police officer Lara Walker. She dodged cars on San Antonio Road as we speeded to a domestic violence call in Los Altos Hills. Walker was the back-up for the sheriff who was responding.

Neighbors on O'Keefe Lane had called 9-1-1 and reported hearing a woman screaming. Domestic violence is the most dangerous call for an officer and one to which officers never go alone. Once we arrived, the sheriff checked with the residents and all seemed to be OK. If there is any sign of injury, Santa Clara County has a mandatory arrest law.

From there we followed up on a BOL, "be on the lookout," from Mountain View Police. A citizen had reported seeing a white van, no windows, heading east on El Camino Real, with a passenger crying for help.

We parked and watched the traffic on El Monte Avenue in case the van went by on the way to the 280 freeway. We didn't see the white van.

"A good night is when you catch a really bad guy," Payton said.

We didn't catch any bad guys. But we had a good night.