District One: Community Watch Meeting - The Break Down

Today I attended the District 1 Community Watch Forum. It was one of three 1st District Meetings sponsored by Council Woman Lena Gonzalez to help neighborhoods within the first district begin their own community watches. 

There are two more meetings in case you missed tonight's. While a lot of the information is common sense, it still applies to all Long Beach Council Districts.

In attendance was a good portion of the the police resource officers for West Division as well as First District Council Woman Lena Gonzalez. Community watches are formed when a group of neighbors come together, adopt a monthly meeting time and appoint a community contact member; that person is the one who attends police forums, and disseminates what they learn back to their community group.

For instance, as a Community Contact, I would be expected to attended the latest West Division Leadership Forum on Human Trafficking. I would take notes, collect hand outs and give that information to my neighbors. One question that was asked early was how many households should you need to start a community watch. While the police did say, it should start with at least three people, they also added it can grow from there. And some in attendance began their community watch groups with less.

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"I started my Wrigley Community Watch with just myself in April," said Sixth District Candidate Josephine Bañuelos Villaseñor. "Now I have 29 people."

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Roles of the Community Watch Contact include

•  Introducing yourself to your neighbors
• Scheduling the initial meetings
• Taking attendance/ minutes during the meetings
• Being in contact with your resource officer/ who deals in long term problems
• Disseminate crime trand Information to their community

Roles of the Community Watch Participants include:

• Getting to know your neighbor
• Reporting suspicious activity
• Identifying neighborhood issues
• Assisting community officials
• And developing plans of action where problems exist

The presentation centered on four specific areas: your own personal safety, reporting issues like graffiti and dumping [via Go Long Beach and other similar resources], literacy services and the Healthy Active Long Beach Program. Because each of these is important, we'll tackle them more thoroughly on other days.

 A lot of tonight's meeting focused on the fact that crime is like a three sided triangle. Take any one of the sides away, and the crime is less likely to occur.

In that sense, a lot of tonight's meeting focused on personal safety and taking away the opportunity to be a victim. Overall Officer Jose Flores who gave the presentation recommended that to stay safe one should always:

• Remain alert
• Avoid risky situations
• And trust your instinct - If something doesn't feel safe it probably isn't

Additional topics included street safety, vehicle safety, sidewalk safety and holiday safety tips. For instance, it is recommended you have your keys ready as you approach your car. While you are looking for them at the car door, you are giving criminals an opportunity to attack. In a later post I will cover every one of those topics in more detail. 

Street Safety/ Sidewalk Safety

• Walk in groups
• Walk with purpose
• Be aware of your surroundings
• Acknowledge people
• Carry a purse or hand bag close to your body 
• Walk in the middle of the sidewalk
• Avoid narrow openings between buildings
• Avoid overgrown hedges
• Stay in well lit areas
• Avoid suspicious people by going into businesses or crossing the street

Additionally, Council Woman Lena Gonzalez also used the meeting as an opportunity for the community to suggest which alleys needed lighting the most, as she has set aside $20,000 to light up the First District Alleyways that need lighting the most.  

The Next Meetings Are On:

Willmore Neighborhood
Thursday, November 19th
7 – 9 pm
Drake Park Community Room
951 Maine Ave

Linden-Roosevelt Neighborhood
Monday, December 7th
7 – 9 pm
Roosevelt Elementary Room A101
1574 Linden Ave