COMMUNITY
JUNE 29, 2012
SHPD reaches out to community with its inaugural ‘Coffee with Cops’ event
Nick Diamantides/Signal Tribune
SHPD Chief Michael Langston and Signal Hill resident Nancy Sciortino enjoy a friendly conversation at Golden Eagle Restaurant last Friday Nick Diamantides Staff Writer
Nearly a dozen residents attended the Signal Hill Police Department's (SHPD) Coffee with Cops outreach to the community, and Chief Michael Langston said he was pleased with the turnout. “A handful of people came, but we are glad to have the chance to meet members of the public,” he said. Langston, who has been at the SHPD helm for a year, said he enjoys working in Signal Hill. “It’s a great community, small and very close knit,” he said. “Everyone seems to know everybody. It’s a very well-cared-for community, and I am proud to be part of the city government here." The event happened in the Golden Eagle Restaurant and provided locals the chance to have informal, face-to-face conversations with the chief and two SHPD officers. None of the residents and business people who came expressed complaints or concerns about the way the SHPD does its job, but some asked questions. Langston said that the outreach was also designed to inform residents on department procedures and to answer questions on crime numbers. Recently, the Long Beach Police Department released statistics showing that the overall crime rate in Long Beach had increased in recent months. Langston said the same increase was not occurring in Signal Hill. “Right now, year to date, our crime rate is
down in all categories except for two,” he said. “We are seeing an increase in petty larceny and auto theft.” The chief explained that in most years auto theft fluctuates so an increase in that category is not unusual. “We are not sure why petty larceny has been increasing lately, but we suspect there may be an impact from the prison realignment issue, which includes the early release of some state prisoners and changes in the parole and probation system,” he said. “We are just starting to track that issue and track the numbers to see if there is an actual correlation, but the good news is that our overall crime rate is down.” Langston noted that he hopes to see more residents and business owners involved in proactive crime prevention, but one of the first things he discovered after being hired was that the neighborhood watch and business watch programs had become mostly dormant. “We are actually in the process of restarting a neighborhood-watch and a business-watch program,” he said. “I am a firm believer that those programs are the best crime-prevention programs out there.” Langston said that, in his observation, SHPD officers have good relationships with the city’s residents. He added that Coffee with Cops was designed to improve communication and rapport with community members. SHPD Sgt. Robert Cravens see COFFEE page 10
Zeilinger
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money (with) to help support it,” he said. Though Something’s Cooking came out after The Naked Groom, it is Zeilinger’s first effort. “That was my first novel, and I hated it the way it was, so with the help of my wife we made it so it was a decent story, because it needed help,” Zeilinger explained. He and his wife routinely edit and read each other’s manuscripts. “Originally it was called Dumpster Diving for Love. And everybody seemed to like it. The agents and editors seemed to love the title for about three or four years. And then one day somebody said, ‘You know, we never really liked the title.’ Thanks for telling me.” Zeilinger tried to get both his books published, to no avail. “A lot of these romantic comedies...they tend to favor female authors because the majority of the readership are women, and so I sent out a lot,” he said. “I'd written some other manuscripts and sent them out, and I [received] a lot of rejection slips to get them published the traditional way.” Zeilinger noted only six companies control publishing in the United States, further narrowing the odds in an already competitive field. Zeilinger discovered self-publishing through Smashwords.com when he was with his wife at a writers conference at UCLA. “It’s sort of a haven for all the indie writers, not because they can’t get published anywhere but because it’s
SIGNAL TRIBUNE
faster,” Zeilinger said. He recalled a conversation with a woman at a writers group meeting he attended. “She was 73, and she was writing historical novels...and she was doing electronic publishing. And [my wife and I] were still trying to go the traditional route and said, ‘Why are you doing this?’ She goes, ‘I'm 73. I don't have time to wait around.’” Zeilinger self-published; it was faster, guaranteed and worked around the various patience-wracking hurdles and pitfalls often found in traditional publishing. “Because the truth of the matter is if a publisher bought my book today...it’d probably be three years before it even hit a shelf,” Zeilinger said. “And in this day and age, we all have short attention spans. We want things to go now. So this was a much better avenue, and you get your readership out much quicker.” The Internet reached a global audience instantly. Zeilinger noted that probably 75 copies of Something’s Cooking at Dove Acres have been sold, having been up for digital purchase on Smashwords.com, Amazon and similar e-book vendors. Writing is a relatively recent development for Zeilinger. “I started out as a political science major, but I’d always been drawing. My whole life I’d been drawing. And my father said something to me one time. He said, ‘You know, Bill, you’re going to be working for the rest of your life, so when you wake up in the morning you better be doing something you like,’” Zeilinger said.
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“And so I changed my major from political science and international relations to art and graphic design.” His first job after his time in college was devising the package design for Citizens’ Band radios (often known as CB radios). This was the 1970s. These shortdistance radio communications systems were in their prime, but cellphones have now rendered them obsolete. He eventually moved on to art director of the moving company Van Lines, but a Canadian firm bought it out in 1980. In turn, Zeilinger began his own small business, Those Designers, which remains today. He also took up a job at Long Beach City College in its Community Relations and Marketing Department, where he designed everything from bus decals to schedules alongside another graphic designer. He planned to work there temporarily. Last Thursday, June 28, he retired. Zeilinger has a routine he plans to keep into retirement. “My wife and I get up every morning at 6 and write for an hour,” he explained. He remains a member of the International Animation Society and the Orange County Chapter of the Romance Writers of America. He hopes to fill his extra time reading more, noting that as a writer he must read others as well. “I feel I’ve got a sense of humor, and hopefully the readers feel that way too, because it’s all for them, and that’s the nice thing,” Zeilinger said. “We’re writing to please the readers, not to please the publisher.”
EYE ON CRIME
Crimes reported by LBPD June 19 to 24 Council Districts 6, 7 & 8
Tuesday, June 19 Residential burglary 8am– 2500 block of Magnolia Avenue
Automobile burglary 3pm– 3300 block of Magnolia Avenue Residential/garage burglary 7pm– 2000 block of Lime Avenue Automobile burglary 7:30pm– 3600 block of Pine Ave. Automobile burglaries 8pm and 9:30pm– 2700 block of Cedar Avenue
Automobile burglary 9:30pm– 3100 block of Eucalyptus Avenue
Automobile burglary 10pm– 600 block of W. Weston Place Wednesday, June 20 Automobile burglary 8:30pm– 4000 block of Elm Avenue
Automobile burglary 2:50pm– 700 block of W. 31st Street Commercial robbery 10:01pm– 1000 block of E. Pacific Coast Highway
Robbery (person) 7:18pm– Pacific Coast Highway and Lime Avenue
Friday, June 22 Grand theft 2:41pm– 2300 block of E. Spring Street
Robbery (person) 10:12pm– 800 block of E. Pacific Coast Highway
Saturday, June 23 Commercial burglary 3:50am– 900 block of E. 33rd Street
Robbery (person) 10:35pm– 1600 E. Pacific Coast Highway
Forgery 7:07am– 2200 block of Gaviota Avenue
Friday, June 22 Residential burglary 12:01am– 2300 block of Long Beach Boulevard
Grand theft (property) 9am– 3300 block of Cerritos Avenue Monday, June 25 Automobile burglary 6:30am– 1700 block of E. Willow Street Suspect identified.
Residential burglary 6:19pm– 1000 block of E. Hill Street Sunday, June 24 Commercial burglary 6:33pm– Locust Avenue & E. 20th Street
Commercial burglary/shoplifting 2:45pm– 900 block of E. 33rd Street
Battery 6:50pm– 2100 block of Sea Ridge Dr.
Crimes reported by SHPD June 21 to 26
Tuesday, June 26 Scavenging 9:52am– 3200 block of Lewis Avenue Suspect in custody.
Thursday, June 21 Battery 5:30am– 2300 block of Ocean View Drive Suspect in custody.
Petty theft with prior 3pm– 700 block of E. Spring Street Suspect in custody.
Battery 10:40am– 900 block of E. 25th Street Suspect in custody.
Grand theft 5:36pm– 2300 block of California Avenue
Burglary– garage/residential 1am– 2100 block of E. Hill St.
HARBOR AREA FARMERS MARKETS Thursday, June 21
Signal Hill resident John M. and SHPD Sergeant Robert Cravens at the Coffee with Cops outreach
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