CYPRESS : Police Turn to TV to Catch Thieves

At 9:41 Wednesday morning, Motor Officer Steve Spernak of the Cypress Police Department was in hot pursuit of a man suspected of parole violation. After jumping a few fences, running through five back yards and setting up a seven-man barricade, he and other officers found the man hiding in a doghouse.

That was at 9:58. Four minutes later, Spernak swept into the studio of the local cable TV station. A production assistant frantically put makeup on his still-perspiring face and simultaneously tried to reshape his “helmet hair.”

Seconds later, Spernak, looking as composed as if he had been there all morning, took a deep breath, looked into the camera and smiled. “I am here today to talk about what people should do if they are in their cars and hear sirens,” Spernak said, launching into a list of traffic-safety tips. Director John Olson, watching from the control room, breathed a sigh of relief. The taping would proceed as scheduled.

Spernak and a team of other officers are the regular guests on “Cypress: Your City, Your Police,” a local version of “America’s Most Wanted.” Although it may lack the elaborate sets and realistic re-enactments of the national program, it represents an attempt to involve people in crime-solving.

The show, on the air since January, is the brainchild of Detective Carlos Solorza, who works in the property crimes division, and Community Service Officer Pam Kelch, who is its hostess. Seeing the popularity of the national show, Solorza and Kelch decided to try it on a local level in hopes of turning up more leads on burglaries. The show airs one Tuesday a month at 11 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. on Channel 52.

“A lot of times people don’t even know what’s happened on their own street,” Solorza says.

Standing before a map of the city divided into 48 sections, Solorza points out for the viewers where burglaries were reported in the last month. He lists the method of entry for each and provides, if one is available, a description of the person involved. At the end of the segment he urges members of the audience to call the Police Department should they have any information about a particular crime.

Cypress, like many Orange County cities, has had increases in residential and auto burglaries over the past few years, Lt. John Schaefer said.

“With 52 cops and seven square miles to cover, we can’t be everywhere all the time,” Schaefer said. However, chances are good that someone in the city of 42,000 residents was there and did see something when a crime occurred, he said.

The show, originally 15 minutes long, is now almost an hour. It also includes segments about local community service organizations, tips on home safety and a “Meet Your Policeman” portion that introduces individual members of the force.

Still, it has not achieved what other television crime-stopper shows have: audience participation. To date, it has not prompted a single telephone call, officers say.

But Kelch and the others remain optimistic.

“It’s new. Hopefully, they will come in time,” Kelch said.