Taking to Streets to Protect Neighborhood

There is a police scanner next to the coffee-maker in the kitchen. She carries the baby in one hand and a walkie-talkie in the other--it is her link to her husband, who is out patrolling the neighborhood.

Sometimes, he patrols by himself. On occasion, he wears a bulletproof vest, especially on days when he wears shoddy clothes to look like a bum. He blends in better that way when he hangs out in the alleys, searching for kids writing graffiti.

Other times, a resident who prefers to be called “Sherlock” teams up with his neighbors. Together, they are out to protect their turf, the DeForest Park neighborhood in North Long Beach.

On foot, bike and by car, residents have banded together to police their neighborhood. Led by Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Jerry Shultz, the residents--who include two older women known as “Cagney and Lacey”--sign up for their shifts at a monthly community meeting. Since last April, their job has been to watch for suspicious activity and report trouble to police.

“We realize the police need all the help they can get,” said Shultz, president of the North Long Beach Neighborhood Assn., DeForest Chapter. “This is similar to Neighborhood Watch. We just decided to take it a step further.”

The woman nicknamed “Cagney,” who is 72, said: “I don’t want to get ripped off and I don’t want my neighbors ripped off. They would lick off the graffiti if I had my way. I’m little, but I’m mighty.”

Rick, a patrol member, explained it this way: “We need to keep the neighborhood within the control of the people--not the druggies, not the thieves. If it takes being out there and being the watchdogs because police can’t be there, that’s what we’re going to do.

“We’re not a militant group. We just want to keep this neighborhood ours,” said Rick, a 31-year-old financial analyst who, like most of his fellow patrol members, asked that his full name not be used for fear of retribution by criminals.

The tree-lined DeForest Park neighborhood has about 1,200 homes, mostly quaint single-family houses, and its own park that residents work to keep clean. The neighborhood’s eastern boundary has some apartment complexes, one block short of busy Atlantic Avenue. A once all-white neighborhood, it is now home to some blacks and Latinos, although it remains predominantly white.

Residents said their biggest problems are burglaries, car break-ins and graffiti. Since the patrols started, Shultz and his neighbors said, they have helped police break up a small neighborhood gang and arrest several others for graffiti, drugs and burglaries.

Police and city officials give the group mostly positive reviews.

Police Lt. Melvin Gallwas, who heads the department’s community relations section, said: “I think they’re a very proactive group. It’s highly organized. They really care about their community. They complement our Police Department because they serve as our eyes and ears.”

The neighbors, for example, helped police clean up the corner of 61st Street and Atlantic Avenue by reporting suspected drug dealers, who were later arrested along with others on gambling and traffic warrants, he said.

Police Lt. Carroll Shelly said: “I think it’s a good deal. I don’t see how the Police Department can manage without citizens’ help.”

“Society in general has relegated all responsibility for law enforcement to the Police Department,” he said. “Citizens have gotten to the point where they don’t want to get involved. . . . They call the Police Department, and they don’t even want to give their names.”

But Officer Paul Hanania, who has patrolled North Long Beach for the last seven years, said the group’s members sometimes bother police with petty calls, such as teen-agers urinating in the park or a drunk going door to door, begging for money.

“It takes time away from handling things that are more serious,” Hanania said.

Councilman Warren Harwood, who represents North Long Beach, praised the group for becoming involved.

Councilman Les Robbins, a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputy, said the group’s work “is a good example of the level of frustration people have about crime.” Across the city, crime involving other people has sharply increased in the last two years.

Robbins cautioned, however, that the citizens must be careful to not get involved personally. “It’s dangerous,” he said. “There are crazy people out there.”

Shultz said the patrols are “not a vigilante group. We observe and report.”

Shultz, because he has law enforcement training, said he has detained a few suspects until police arrived. Usually, they were teen-agers painting graffiti on the walls of the recreation center at the park.

The resident known as Sherlock, a 44-year-old retired police officer from another state who now works as a security guard, said he too has once or twice held suspects for police.

Usually, however, he either checks out the alley behind his home from “observation points” in his back yard or drives around the neighborhood with a walkie-talkie always tucked inside his back pocket.

“Sam 1 to Sam 2. We just went through the park. We’re going to head to Cagney and Lacey’s and see what’s going on with them,” Sherlock calls in to his wife.

“Is the park all clear?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s good.”

“Ten-four.”

Over at Cagney and Lacey’s, the women explain how they patrol nearly every day, usually in the afternoons. Like the others, they said they look for something out of place, people who look suspicious because they appear to be checking out homes or who constantly look behind them nervously.

Lacey carries a gun in her car. She said she keeps the bullets separate, as required by law.

Ed Sosa, a Los Angeles County deputy probation officer who participates in the patrols a few times a month, uses a 35-millimeter camera as his weapon. So far, he has not spotted any trouble, he said.

Sosa and others described the neighborhood as tightknit. Led by Shultz, the neighbors regularly clean off graffiti at the recreation center themselves and keep other residents informed of everything from proposed developments in the neighborhood to scam artists making the rounds. They also pride themselves for having created an award-winning nature trail at their park.

“At first, we didn’t want to live in North Long Beach, but when we came here and got that community feeling, we decided this was home,” Sosa said.

Other residents, including people who had heard of the patrols and those who were not aware of them, praised their neighbors for their involvement.

“You can sit in front of your house without fearing shootings or trouble,” said Carmen Ameszcua, 29, as she sat on her front porch with her son and parents.

Terri Floyd, who has lived 17 years in the DeForest Park area, called the patrols a great idea. “There are a lot of elderly people here, and it makes everyone feel safer,” she said.

Compton residents Andres Arana and Carlos Zavala, who have played basketball and handball at the park for the last 10 years, said they were not aware of the patrols, which they also called “a great idea.”

Jay Ahoya, 21, said he had no problems with the group, although a couple of the men questioned him a couple of months ago. “I was sitting on the side of a car with my friends, and they were trying to find out where we live,” said Ahoya, who sports long hair, a mustache, beard and a small earring in one ear. “It didn’t bother me. . . . It was OK.”

Sosa said when the residents first started the patrols, some were overzealous and stopped people to question them. That is not encouraged, he said: Residents are advised to merely observe and report.

Shultz said that most of those spotted by the watch group are white and that there are no racist overtones in the policing activity. “My concern is with preserving this neighborhood, and I don’t care if they’re white, black or green.”

Frank Berry, president of the Long Beach Chapter of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, said he was not aware of the group, nor has his organization received any complaints about its work.

“If they have good intentions and it’s primarily to observe and report, then I don’t have a problem with that,” Berry said. “Crime is a big concern across the city.

“But if it’s the first phase of some vigilante-type activity, I question whether it’s safe or right to do.”

Shultz said he discourages his neighbors from “playing cop.”

“We just want to protect our neighborhood,” Shultz said. “I can say this, DeForest Park has not been taken over by gangs.”