Residents Upset Over So-Called ‘Neighborhood Watch Meeting’

 “An exclusive infomercial for one private security company.”

El Medio Bluffs residents who attended what was billed as a “Neighborhood Watch Meeting” at Palisades Charter High School on Tuesday, Jan. 20 said they felt misled and called the meeting nothing more than a sales pitch for security company Palisades Patrol.

Elizabeth Stein, who organized the event and volunteers her time as captain of the El Medio Bluffs Neighborhood Watch, said she wanted to put together a meeting that would focus on crime trends in the El Medio Bluffs and provide tips on how to prevent crime in the neighborhood.

Based on information provided by Palisades Patrol, Stein and her husband Jim wrote and distributed flyers to hundreds of Palisades homes about the meeting the day before it took place.

The flyer stated that speakers at the “Neighborhood Watch Meeting” would include LAPD Senior Lead Officer Michael Moore and two LAPD officers who patrol Pali High, as well as Palisades Patrol representatives.

When residents arrived, however, Stein announced that Moore would not be attending. The LAPD officers who patrol Pali High also did not appear.

The only speaker was Conejo Valley resident Scott Wagenseller, owner of Palisades Patrol.

Wagenseller spoke for a few minutes about crime in the Palisades then said, “Now I’m going to talk about my company and what makes us so special.”

After about 15 minutes, he opened the floor for a 45-minute Q&A session, during which audience members and Stein asked for specific crime prevention tips.

Wagenseller responded with common sense suggestions, including locking all doors and windows, creating physical barriers, having electronic detection, Neighborhood Watch and security companies.

Stein told the Palisadian-Post some thought the meeting was helpful.

Others disagreed. “I wasn’t expecting a sales pitch tonight. I thought we were going to be hearing about our neighborhood,” said one audience member after listening to Wagenseller.

On the Post’s Facebook page, Sue Schmidt wrote: “It was not really a neighborhood watch meeting but an exclusive infomercial for one private security company, Palisades Patrol.”

“Now I’m getting all these nasty emails,” Stein said in a phone interview with the Post.

In a Jan. 22 letter apologizing to El Medio Bluffs residents and others who were “inconvenienced,” Stein stated that, on Jan. 15, Palisades Patrol Officer Ryan Krusi left a voicemail message for Stein stating that Krusi had personally spoken to LAPD’s Moore and that Moore had agreed to come to the Jan. 20 meeting.

Stein told the Post that Wagenseller informed her only five minutes before the meeting began that Officer Moore would not be attending the meeting.

Stein further told the Post she had called Palisades Patrol three times on Jan. 20 (the day of the event) and that each time she called, Palisades Patrol confirmed that Moore and two additional LAPD Officers would be at the meeting.

LAPD’s Moore told the Post he had no knowledge of the meeting until Palisades Patrol contacted him about it at approximately 9:45 a.m. on Jan. 20, the day of the meeting.

“It’s unfair for the community to be upset with me because nobody from the community reached out to me. I only heard from Palisades Patrol so I thought it was a Palisades Patrol meeting,” Moore said. “Am I going there to help them make their sales pitch?”

The meeting, which drew approximately 70 residents, began with an introduction of the El Medio Bluffs Neighborhood Watch block captains by Stein.

Stein then introduced Wagenseller, repeating information Stein said Palisades Patrol provided her, stating Palisades Patrol was “the one company allowed to follow the LAPD feed. No other company is allowed to be on that feed.”

LAPD’s Moore told the Post, “That is false,” and added that any security company can listen to the LAPD frequency and respond.

In his talk, Wagenseller told the audience, “Michael Moore told me, Scott, your company has arrested or been responsible for more arrests than all the security companies in West LA combined.”

In an email to the Post, Moore denied Wagenseller’s statement, writing: “I do not know who made that quote but it wasn’t me.”

Stein said Palisades Patrol was the source of another statement she made to the audience, that Palisades Patrol “is the one company that is police academy trained.”

“That’s false information,” said Jerry Shaw, president of SSA Security Group, Inc., a security company that operates in several Pacific Palisades neighborhoods, including the Riviera, Huntington, Alphabet Streets and El Medio Bluffs.

“All of our officers are either active off-duty police officers, recently retired police officers or LA County Sheriffs,” said Shaw, a 25-year, retired veteran of the LAPD who spent a majority of his career as a supervisor in the Metropolitan Division.

Wagenseller, who is known in the community, can be seen in large photos of himself on his company’s vehicles and in printed display advertisements together with the slogan: “Whom do you Trust?”

One El Medio Bluffs resident who attended the meeting and asked not to be named, said, “I was really disappointed. I rushed over there and it was just a plug for the security company. If that’s what it was going to be, they should have invited all the security companies.”

Shaw said SSA was not invited to speak at the event. Patrol companyACS also confirmed that they were not invited. Calls to ADT were not returned.

According to LAPD’s Moore, “The way this whole meeting went down seemed odd.”

Some residents questioned whether it was appropriate for Pali High to provide an auditorium for a sales pitch.

David Riccardi, director of operations at Pali High, said he received an email from Stein asking to use one of Pali’s halls for a Neighborhood Watch event with LAPD’s Moore.

“We work with Michael Moore on a lot of stuff so we thought the meeting was legit, so we jumped through hoops to make it happen and get them a room,” Riccardi told the Post.

“If we had known it was for a sales pitch, we wouldn’t have done that because it’s not for the community’s benefit,” Riccardi added.

The day after the meeting, Moore said he fielded a call from a Palisades resident who complained about the event.

“I told her to make sure the [Neighborhood Watch] organizer has all my contact info and to give me advance notice,” Moore said. “I’d love to come to the neighborhood.”

Stein told the Post she is scheduling another Neighborhood Watch meeting for next month and is working directly with Moore to make sure he will be able to attend.

In a letter to neighbors after the event, Stein denied that she was on the Palisades Patrol payroll, and wrote that neither Palisades Patrol nor any other patrol company will be present at the next meeting.

When reached by email, Wagenseller said, “Elizabeth Stein did a great job of organizing a Neighborhood Watch meeting.”