BEVERLY HILLS - The City of Beverly Hills is still recruiting residents to become Neighborhood Watch block captains and be a part of the leadership of the new Citizens Corps for disaster preparedness. Because it may take several days for local government to respond to all emergency calls and restore services such as water and power, the block captains are needed to organize their blocks so that everybody can take care of themselves in the event of a natural disaster or terrorist attack.

Although the program has been around for many years, new life has been breathed into it in recent months.

"It's been around for many years, but we began revitalizing it around March. It lost a little bit of steam and we had to revitalize the program again and find out who was actually involved still because we had people move away, pass away," Officer Kurt Haefs said.

The program started with 190 names, but an investigation revealed that 40 people were still active block captains. Officer Haefs had to build from there and said "we're on the right track" because the numbers more than doubled with the addition of 65 to 70 block captains since he took it over in February and started recruiting.

The purpose of the Neighborhood Watch, which is coupled with disaster preparedness, is to look out for one another and make sure residents have a safe environment on their block. People need to be prepared with food, water, and find alternate power sources.

Citizen Corps, which is the City's response to Department of Homeland Security requirements for emergency preparedness, encompasses the Citizens Emergency Response Training (CERT), The Disaster Communication System (DCS), and the City's Volunteer Program and Neighborhood Watch.

"Our City Council is very much behind program and we?re looking for volunteers to get involved in the program because we still have blocks within the city that aren?t organized yet," Officer Haefs said. "Our goal is 100 percent participation in the program so that our city is [totally] organized. The response has been very positive and our department is very excited about the future of the program."

To become a Block Captain, call the Beverly Hills Police Crime Prevention Office at 310-285-2133 and ask for Sgt. Joe Chirillo or Officer Kurt Haefs. A "Block Captain?s Kit" and two-hour training at the station are available to new recruits.

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