Tips on how to stay safe in your community from Danville Police Chief Shields

DANVILLE, Calif. (KGO) -- ABC7 News is working hard to building a better Bay Area. This week we are focusing on safety for your family members, your homes, and ourselves.

We asked our viewers and the people in the East Bay community their questions about safety. ABC7 talked to Danville Police Chief Shields and asked for his expert advice on how to stay safe.

Here are the tips that you need to know a about safety from Police Chief Shields:

1: Do the Danville Officers walk the beat?

"We will walk the beat we will walk into the businesses and see what their concerns."

2. Is it a good idea to have a camera on your dashboard?

"Absolutely, if we got people who are willing to put a camera up and cover their own personal property that works for us. They are in control of that, that is their data. That is not our data to control and we absolutely recommend that."

3. What is an effective way to talk to your children about being safe in school with the school shootings going on?

"Giving your kids good sound advice if they think that something isn't right. If they think that something is not right go to the people that you trust. Go to the police, go to a school administrator, go to an adult friend that you trust and tell them that something.

4. What are good safety tips for kids who walk to and from school?

"We try to stay in a group so even if my son, who is nine, is walking home from school he knows that he is walking with a friend. If you are by yourself you are more like to be a victim of any type but if you have more kids or people with you the better."

5.What should you do if you are being followed?

"Do something. If you can run away, run away. If you can hide and you are close to your home or your close to be able to run back to school, run back to school and get to location where they are safe. If they are older you want to teach the kids to defend themselves."

6.What should I do if I see something odd? I don't want to bother 9-1-1 if it is nothing.

"If you feel like it is an emergency and you feel that someone's life is in danger or that someone needs help by all means then call 9-1-1. If you are on a cell Sheriff's Department has done a great job of moving to the E-9-1-1 system which let's us locate your cell phone and you. We recommend you calling 9-1-1 so that allows us to do that quarry. If it a suspicious vehicle that is unoccupied or you don't want to bother the police and you don't feel that it is an emergency then just call the non-emergency number."

7.Should a driver alert another driver when their headlights are not on in the evening?

"I think it is the neighborly thing to do. I still argue that yes we should. I don't think that there is any other overriding information saying that we shouldn't give a couple flashes of the high beams and flick them off and on just to let them know that their lights are out."