Seal Beach Neighbor 4 Neighbor is looking for volunteers in Old Town, including block captains.
On Saturday, Nov. 2, the group held a meet and greet on the Greenbelt at Seventh Street and Electric Avenue, next to the Mary Wilson Library. (For more information, email neighbor4neighbor8thSB@gmail.com.)
The Seal Beach Lions cooked hot dogs, RACES and CERT booths provided information and Halloween candy. The Orange County Fire Authority provided a demonstration on the correct use of a fire extinguisher. (Key concept: Aim at the base of the fire.)
Three council members were present, though they were not seen talking to one another. They were District One Council Member Joe Kalmick, District Three Councilwoman Lisa Landau and District Four Council Member/Mayor Schelly Sustarsic.
Seal Beach Police Sgt. Brian Gray, the city’s emergency services coordinator, opened the event.
“This is one of the events that we do throughout the year, by request of you guys,” Gray said.
Sarah Geddes explained what the event was about. She said Neighbor 4 Neighbor was similar to Neighborhood Watch.
She said as the program grows, they will need to have a block captain for each street.
“Not only are we trying to fight crime, we’re also trying to make sure we’re prepared for an emergency,” she said. One of the things they’re looking for is a block captain.
“My experience with being a block captain in the past is that I just had a roster of name and email address for my neighbors, and as I got an email, email or something that the police wanted to get out to the community, they sent it to me, and I passed it on to my neighbors,” she said.
She said not everything the group was hearing about was getting to the police.
“So if you see something, please, please, please, call it in,” she said.
“So don’t tell your neighbor. Call it in,” she said.
Police Chief Michael Henderson was the next speaker. “
“The neighbor for neighbor program is unique. It serves two purposes. The first is disaster disaster preparation and emergency management, and the second one is crime prevention,” Henderson said.
“If we get a significant earthquake, one of the first things that we’ll do as the Police Department and the Fire Department is start responding and we prioritize by people who are hurt, injured and need our immediate assistance, things like property damage or things that are broken, power outages, those are going to be a lower priority,” Henderson said.
“So to a large extent, you’re going to be have to be self-sufficient. You’re going to have to be able to help each other, your neighbors and friends, and hopefully you have those things that’ll help you get through the first few days until help can come,” Henderson said.
Henderson asked the people present how many police cars did they think were available in Seal Beach at that moment. One person called out “five,” another “eight.
“Our normal deployment for the police for the city of Seal Beach is three police officers and a sergeant. So everything north of Westminster is one area. Everything south of Westminster is another area. We’ve one officer to back them up, and then the sergeant oversees the shift,” Henderson said.
“We also also have our volunteers and police, and we have our community service officers who are out doing animal control and writing parking tickets. So that’s our normal deployment, and we really rely on the community to be our eyes and ears and to assist us. So if you’re thinking about calling because you’ve seen something, please just make the call,” Henderson said.
One person asked about the homeless.
Henderson asked the public to call the police if they see a homeless person.
“What we would do with that normally, if there’s no crime occurring, is we’ll offer them resources,” Henderson said.
“We have specially trained police officers called homeless liaison officers that work directly with county resources like social services and Veterans Outreach, and we’ll contact them, and we can contact that homeless person and offer them those resources. One of our challenges is they frequently turn them down. And you know, there’s not much you can do after that,” Henderson said.
In an emergency, he urged the public to call 9-1-1. The direct non-emergency number is (562)594-7232.
“I also want to make you aware of one of our messaging systems called Nixle,” Henderson said.
He said if you text 888777 and send your zip code, you’ll get Nixel messages.
One man complained about people parking behind a non-conforming garage that were blocking an alley.
Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service volunteer Gary Frantz explained the RACES program to anyone who came to his booth. “We provide all sorts of radios,” he said. Some radios that HAM operators use require a special license. An FRS radio does not require a license. The goal of RACES is to keep communications functioning during emergencies.
“We love doing demonstrations with the public,” Frantz said. His booth included a radio and an antenna, as well as several small FRS radios.
RACES works with Community Emergency Response Team.
“I’m kind of the logistics of both groups,” he said.
“We just try to be prepared,” said fellow RACES member Dick Crowe.
For more information about Seal Beach Los Alamitos RACES, visit RACES41.com/info.
