New Disaster Role Sought for Neighborhood Watch

Impressed by the way some San Fernando Valley Neighborhood Watch groups coped with the Northridge earthquake, police and city officials say they now want to turn the local anti-crime groups into full-fledged emergency preparedness teams for the next disaster.

One of the lessons of the quake was that suburban neighbors who had already banded together under police supervision in the Neighborhood Watch groups were much better at dealing with the disaster than the rest of the city, police and city officials said.

Some checked for gas leaks while others knew where to find the elderly and children who might need help. While some scurried about sizing up their neighborhood’s problems, others relayed that information to police and city officials through assigned liaison officers.

And since they all knew each other already, Neighborhood Watch members shared their pantries and their homes with the less fortunate among them. Others in the city had to scramble for help from strangers.

Now, in the wake of the deadly quake--and in preparation for the Big One or one of the many other calamities that could befall the city--police have quietly begun transforming the Neighborhood Watch program in the west San Fernando Valley from a simple vehicle for monitoring crime into a full-fledged, disaster response system, encouraging residents to be as self-reliant as possible.

The next step, officials said Monday, will be to try to expand the program citywide. That way, when police and firefighters are busy handling the most critical problems in the next emergency, many residents will be capable of fending for themselves.

“The time is right, based on our recent experience,” said West Valley Police Capt. Val Paniccia, who has ordered the expansion of Neighborhood Watch groups in his division. “The real key in any major disaster is being able to survive the first few days. And as a group, you can survive a lot longer and better.”

The police, Los Angeles City Councilwoman Laura Chick and the city Fire Department all have pledged to work jointly to get West Valley neighbors together, and to train them in first aid and other emergency response techniques.

“We can turn a disaster into an opportunity to do things better,” said Chick, who represents the southwestern Valley and whose office came up with the idea about the same time police did. “Now this is an ASAP priority thing.”

Under the Neighborhood Watch program, block residents meet regularly to discuss crime issues and to organize themselves to keep watch for possible criminal activity. Block captains keep track of what happens on their streets, reporting to PCRs--or police community representatives--citizens who stay in contact with authorities and the local City Council member’s office.

But in the hours after the first jolt Jan. 17, something unexpected happened on those streets organized under the Neighborhood Watch system. Even before the sun rose, neighbors met with neighbors and canvassed their areas, checking to see if everyone was OK, helping those who weren’t and locating gas leaks and other hazards.

“Oh, God, did it ever work--it was wonderful,” said Marilyn Robinson, 49, a Neighborhood Watch leader for the Bassett Street group in Quimby Park. “You know names, you know who to look for. We shared our water. We made coffee. We even met neighbors who just moved in.”

The Neighborhood Watch apparatus enabled the 274 members of the Quimby Park group to do more than just share food. Within a day, they had compiled a list of residents who wanted city building and safety inspectors to check their homes for damage. Robinson forwarded it to her field representative in Chick’s office. “We had them out within two days,” Robinson said.

Through her block captains, Robinson also was able to spread important news, such as that a water tanker had been brought into the parking lot at Canoga Park High School. Watch members patrolled the area day and night, looking for looters and other signs of trouble.

Now, groups such as Robinson’s are already anticipating expanding into disaster response teams. At a Feb. 2 meeting at West Valley police headquarters, about 50 Neighborhood Watch leaders met with police and had their pictures taken for identification cards. Quimby Park and the nine other Neighborhood Watch groups in the immediate area will send a representative to an emergency preparedness class scheduled to start Feb. 28.

“God forbid, in case the (phone) lines are down and we can’t get through, we would know what to do,” Robinson said. “When you have a disaster, you can band together.”

Based on their experience in the Northridge quake, police and city officials acknowledge that many residents will be on their own in the event of another major disaster, especially during the critical first hours.

Having residents who can care for themselves and secure their neighborhoods will be important in the days and weeks after a major disaster, they said, when food and water will be scarce and lines of communication will be down.

As planned, the groups would have checklists of how to respond to each disaster--floods, earthquakes, fires--and specific tasks for each person. Residents would know where to report for duty, and command posts could be established where people could meet and get their bearings, Paniccia said.

“They could take tallies of damage in their areas, and get better police response,” Paniccia said. “And it’s an automatic anti-looting patrol. They will know who belongs and who doesn’t.”

Paniccia said he is looking into finding a way to supply each neighborhood with a shed containing a master list of residents, search-and-rescue tools, food and water, water-purification systems, first-aid supplies and other important equipment.

On a visit to Japan in 1988 as a member of the state’s Seismic Safety Commission, Councilman Hal Bernson--who represents the northwestern Valley--found that Japanese citizens had been trained in emergency preparedness. Impressed, he pushed for a program that has trained several thousand Los Angeles residents in emergency response techniques.

The program’s budget has been slashed, but Bernson plans to ask that funding be reinstated, said his chief of staff, Greig Smith.

Capt. Ronald Jackson, who oversees the Fire Department’s community response team unit, said firefighters could easily train Neighborhood Watch groups in disaster techniques such as light search-and-rescue and basic first aid.

“It will be easy for us to go to their meetings and teach them, so they have this knowledge under their belts. And they’re more likely to stay together as a team,” Jackson said. “It’s a great idea.”

In the meantime, police and Chick’s office will be looking for ways to get the program off the ground and expand it into areas in which Neighborhood Watch does not yet exist. Many people who have shied away from Neighborhood Watch because of its emphasis on police activities may welcome an opportunity to respond to natural disasters, Paniccia said.

“The walls that came down in the earthquake weren’t just masonry and wood; a lot of people came out and began talking to each other for the first times in their lives,” Paniccia said. “We want this communication between neighbors to continue and expand and grow, so that when they put the walls back up, the communication will still be there.”