Valley Glen residents fight crime with signs, Flock cameras — but city officials say its illegal

Los Angeles homeowners have gone to war with authorities trying to tear down their private warning signs and security cameras – despite them deterring rampaging criminals.

Neighbors in Valley Glen in the San Fernando Valley put up 22 signs, infrared license plate readers and video recorders amid a spate of break-ins by South American gangs. 

Debbie Stopeck told the California Post there were 26 incidents between November 2024 and April 2025 – but the wave suddenly stopped when they erected the equipment.

The 65-year-old retiree said: “We are taking back the streets. We are taking back the power. Last year, my neighbor’s teenage daughter was too scared to go to school because their home was broken into. Everything was stolen from them.

“Now we have kids who are happy to be outside and play on the streets. We went from a high level of crime in 2025 to zero once we got these cameras and warning signs installed.

“They are public safety signs telling bad actors that when you come into this neighborhood there are cameras and you’re being watched.

“The criminals need to know they’re under surveillance when they come into our neighborhood. The signs make them think twice.”

But nit-picking local officials with the LA Department of Transportation have told residents the signs installed on city utility poles break city codes and are illegal.

Stopeck told the Post that LA Mayor Karen Bass and California Governor Gavin Newsom ought to step in and help.

She said: “I would love to hear from Bass or Newsom, but I haven’t heard from anybody yet. I would tell them how I solved the problem.

“I worked for 36 years for the state of California and I was a problem solver.” Bass, said Stopek, should provide exemptions for the signs.

Local city council member for the district, Adrin Nazarian, visited with Stopeck at her home on Friday and in an earlier statement said: “I love the proactive community engagement I’m seeing in neighborhoods like this, and I appreciate the initiative these neighbors have taken to protect their community.

“We’ll be working with the Department of Transportation and community members to make sure that signage is displayed in the manner most appropriate to ensure public safety.”

Nazarian told Stopeck he would try to find a “workable solution.”

She said LAPD officials told her gangs from Colombia and Chile were responsible for the staggering number of break-ins in the area.

The criminals had also been stealing car license plates and breaking into vehicles. “We don’t have that anymore,” she continued.

Residents pay several thousand dollars a year for three licence plate readers and three live-feed cameras which works out to be roughly $220 per year for each family.

The data collected on suspicious vehicles is shared with LAPD. “The cameras are an investment,” said Stopek. “My neighbors feel they are worthy and obviously make a huge difference.

“I’ve lived in the same house all my life. I played here as a kid. I want my street to be safe for neighbors who have children to play without fear of being robbed.

“The camera and the signs have united our streets. “The city can’t protect us. People voted with the whole Me Too movement and the Black Lives Matter movement to defund the police.

“That resulted in a wave throughout the San Fernando Valley as well as Santa Monica, Culver City, Westwood and Beverly Hills.

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“One of my neighbors was robbed in February last year but LAPD still hasn’t responded. “She can’t even get anybody to answer her emails. They are understaffed. “I worked for a law firm that had more people than that.”

The Post has reached out to Los Angeles Department of Transportation for comment.