Long Beach : Area to Celebrate Opening of Community Police Center

The Wrigley neighborhood opened a community police center this week and residents plan to celebrate Saturday, beginning at 10 a.m.

The Wrigley Community Information and Police Center, 2023 Pacific Ave., is staffed primarily by volunteers who do no police work but dispense information.

“We want to provide a friendly, non-threatening environment where anyone can come and report a crime, anonymously if they want,” said Wrigley resident and volunteer Leslie Krolczyk.

The center, an extension of the Neighborhood Watch program, is the second of its kind in Long Beach. A third is expected to open in the Drake Park area early next year, said Michael Parker, city Neighborhood Services Bureau manager.

The community police centers, where residents also can get information about city jobs and programs, are subsidized by the city during the first year. Then residents must find funds for rent and other operating costs.

The city’s first community center opened at 7th Street and Rose Avenue in February. There are plans to move it next year to a free facility at 7th Street and Los Alamitos Boulevard, said Rick Rosen, deputy to Councilman Alan S. Lowenthal. Residents who live nearby have raised about $4,000 to keep the program operating next year, Rosen said.

“As we’ve been looking for an alternate location,” Rosen said, “people have been eager to offer us places for free or at a reduced price because they feel it’s made the neighborhood safer.”

Finding enough volunteers to staff the center has been “our only real limitation,” Rosen said.

About 25 volunteers in the Wrigley area are hoping to keep their center open during the afternoon on weekdays and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends, Krolczyk said.

Information: (310) 599-5119, 599-5775 or 218-8579.