RICHMOND

They have no weapons or badges. Just cell phones, flashlights and reflective yellow vests purchased from a hardware store.

But there is power in numbers — and in the collective belief that crime and blight will not become a fixture here.

Residents in Richmond's North and East neighborhood have formed an active roving citizen patrol to bring neighbors together, deter crime and curb blight.

"We all live here, and it's sort of up to us to be the first line," said resident djovida, who goes by one name. "You can't depend on police always being available."

They walk the neighborhood of more than 5,000 homes several times a week, day and night.

It started in June, following a rash of robberies and burglaries. Vandals struck with graffiti. Then in midday, someone attacked 79-year-old Euvaldo "Eddie" Sisneros during his daily walk. Sisneros died, and 21-year-old Michael Villalobos faces murder charges in the beating.

Enough, residents said. Enough hand-wringing. Enough talking about it. Enough feeling helpless.

Felix Hunziker heard about the beginnings of a patrol group at the north end of the neighborhood and wondered whether the model could be replicated. He asked his neighbors on a Yahoo groups forum if they'd be willing to have a meeting.

Thirteen people showed up. Slowly, momentum began to build.

The group now numbers 35 and

Members also have volunteered to be safety monitors at Richmond High School events following the Oct. 24 gang rape of a 16-year-old girl during the homecoming dance.

On a crisp November evening, more than a dozen gathered at Burg Park at 30th Street and Clinton Avenue to begin the evening patrol — men and women of various ages and sizes. They head out on foot, chatting and laughing as they walk. They hit hot spots and blocks where foreclosed houses sit vacant. They greet a young man leaning up against a corner stop sign. They place doorhangers, funded by donations, about who they are on front doors.

"Hi, we're a neighborhood patrol. Would you like a flier?" Hunziker says to a man sitting on his porch.

A parked truck blocks a sidewalk. They slip a city flier under the windshield wiper, alerting the owner that the city's municipal code prohibits sidewalk obstructions.

Overgrown weeds, trash dumped on a roadside, cars on lawns and nonfunctioning streetlights can make a neighborhood unappealing and invite crime. They say they're not picky, but when they spy an obvious code violation, the group leaves a city flier alerting the owner. They submit a report to police and city code enforcement, filing close to 100 since August, resident Will Luckett said. Some violations are fixed before code enforcement officers arrive, he said. Sometimes all it takes is a little nudge.

To be sure, this is not a militant group. The point is not to apprehend drug-dealers, prostitutes or vandals; that's something they report to police. Their goal is to look out for the neighborhood and show their neighbors and criminals that residents care — and they are watching.

"We're friendly. We're not wannabe cops," Hunziker said. "Our goal is to try to get people together and to act as a deterrent to criminal activities."

It's too soon to tell whether the patrol group has made a statistical difference in crime.

But police Chief Chris Magnus has noticed a difference in residents' sense of safety in the neighborhood. He thinks crime, particularly property crimes, will drop over time.

"Some folks in any neighborhood are up to no good, thinking, 'This is a good place to do drug dealing, take up occupancy as a squatter.' They feel a little less free to do that" if a neighborhood patrol is watching, Magnus said. "There is power in bringing people together with a shared interest in what their neighborhood looks like."

Magnus hopes other neighborhoods will start their own roving patrols.

"It's easy to feel helpless," said patrol group member Raelene Coburn, mother of a 20-month-old girl. "This gave me something to do. I can start preventing this from happening again. I feel I get as much as I give."

Katherine Tam covers Richmond. Follow her at Twitter.com/katherinetam.