Recommendation to direct City Manager to implement a Dog Walker Watch program as part of the City's current Community Watch Program and report back to City Council within 90 days.
Thank you. That concludes public comment. We're going to be going to item number six. Communication from Councilman Andrews, Councilwoman Gonzalez, Vice Mayor Lowenthal, Councilmember Superman recommendation to direct the city manager to implement a dog walker watch program as part of the city's current community watch program and report back to city council within 90 days. Thank you, Councilman Andrews. Yes, thank you, Mayor. First of all, I could think of my colleagues who signed on with this item. I brought this to the neighborhood crime prevention item forward to assist the city of Long Beach Police Department, who's always in need of public assistance and keeping a watchful eye on the community. With over 63,000 dog owners households in the city. They are implementing a dog watch dog watch dog walk. Watch program, we can very many of those walkers, two extra eyes and ears for the police department. Dog walkers can be available resources in helping to make our community safer. If most of you individuals know with your dog walking and just running a jogging, whatever you do, it's still another eyes and ears for our community. The idea is that we walk where residents, you know, are taking their dogs out on a walk to their neighborhoods. They can do also be trained to watch for suspicious activities. Police have been asking people to report. And a lot of times when you talk about this, you guys realize that our police department is very, very limited and very resources in a lot of things. But this is something I thought that we could bring together, let you understand that your dog can be the eyes and ears and your dog is a man's best friend, so why not use him in this capacity? Foremost, I would like to make the motion to forward this item to the Housing and Neighborhood Committee, you know, for more time. Because the fact that the impact that it would bring on the police department, I think it right now we should take a little more time and look into this. But I'm very, very serious about this item. And I would hope that that my diocese would feel the same way and vote for me to do this also. Thank you. Let me first do public comment and public comment on the item. CNN. I have Vice Mayor Lowenthal. Thank you. And Councilmember Andrews, I can withdraw the the motion if you if you'll queue up for it. I just. Can I. So hold on. Right. Go ahead. Do you? And yes, I made up. I made the motion. Can you hit the button, though? Thank you, Mr. Mayor. May I ask a question? I know that Councilmember Andrews has been working on this for the better part of a year. And I'm wondering why you think it should go to a committee? I'm happy to support that. I'm just. I know you've just been working on it for so long and. Yeah. One reason is because the fact I think the input that the impact that it would bring on our police department right now has been, you know, with the social resources in which they have. I just think we should take a little more time in by taking into the house and neighborhood. We would have more time to do that. Okay. Thank you. That's all for me. Is there any other member that would like to make a comment? Councilmember Mongo. I think this is a fantastic idea, Councilmember And I think that you bringing this forward is really an opportunity for us to highlight the opportunities that so many of our neighbors have when they're walking their dogs at night and hopefully train them on knowing what to look for and how to be a good how to be a good witness should something suspicious arise that they see. So congratulations on all the work you've done on this. This is phenomenal and I look forward to being supportive as well. Thank you very much. Thank you, Councilwoman Gonzalez. Councilmember Andrews, I want to thank you for this. It's you know, sometimes we got to get really creative on how we do things. And I think this is another opportunity to train individuals who need to be trained. What I would also suggest to our Housing Neighborhoods and Housing Committee is to maybe even look at some of our resources that are already existing. For instance, you know, we in the first District, we're trying to roll out a large community watch, which I know this will be mirroring. And we have great partnership with the DLB, our downtown Long Beach Associates or our business improvement districts. Many of those employees are already trained, so perhaps that could be another way for us. So we don't use so many police resources, as you mentioned. That could be another avenue for us to look at. Leveraging, you know, is another option. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Supranational. Thank you. And I'd like to thank Councilmember Andrews for bringing this item forward. I signed on originally. I just thought it was a, you know, a broad range of resources that will work. And then last Tuesday night during council meeting, I found out that a dog watcher in my district was able to inform me about some serious crimes. And to Councilwoman Gonzalez's point. We are now forming a community watch group as a result of that. So I didn't have to wait till the Senate approved to see the fruition. Thank you. Thank you. Councilwoman Pryce. I, too, want to thank the councilmember and the co-sponsors that brought this forward. I think it's innovative and we try to encourage that. And I also think that it supports the police department's mission of increasing the number of community watch groups and allowing extra eyes to be put on the issues that impact quality of life and neighborhood safety. So anything we can do to help the police with adding additional eyes and ears I think is helpful for us to do at this time. Will they? Do you have have we thought about whether or not they will have shirts or patches or anything like that? Maybe. Sure, Cherry Dog in his district will have his district number on it to let people know. That's just one of my ideas. Yellow shirts for them in that district. One, two and three. You know. Polo shirt. Anything. Great. Thank you for bringing this item forward. Councilman Richardson. Thank you. Just want to chime in and say anything we can do to add more eyes to keep our neighborhoods safer that I can be in support of that. So congratulations, Councilman Andrew. Councilman. Councilman Austin. Yes. I want to thank you for bringing this forward. Councilmember Andrews. I'm a dog watcher and Walker and our guest watcher as well. And oftentimes walking through my neighborhood and through the community at night, I see a lot. We really do our report. I don't see a lot of crime, but I think this is a common sense approach to, you know, being good neighbors. So thank you for bringing forward our support. Look forward to coming through to coming to the Housing and Neighborhoods Committee, who will be have a chance to work on it. Vice Mayor Lowenthal. Okay. Just to take it full lifecycle, do we see deputizing these dogs and then can we have a special dispensation where they don't have to be on leash? How else are they going to fight crime? So, Councilmember Andrews, have you thought this through? Yes, I really have. And I think that would be the best thing to do, is to be able to deputize the dogs and. Have them off leash and. By all means, and maybe even have them carry weapons here. This is get it's getting late. Yeah. What about? What about the cat? Yeah. We need to send the cat fighters to help Councilmember Richardson. Councilmember Austin had a suggestion that we could use the dog walking to help with the RV problem in the city. Okay. That's. I like that. Any public comment on this item? Now seeing none. Please cast your votes. Motion carries you item number nine.