On the beat

Acouple of times before leaving for work, Mike Zigmund's 8-year-old Chris turfied to him and said: "Hey, dad, don't get shot tonight." Chris Zigmund's fear isn't misplaced. His father is an Anaheim police sergeant. A 12-year veteran of the force, Zigmund, 36, says he no longer feels safe in a city with too many crimes and too few officers. "It can be really scary." The streets are a lot more violent than they used to be, he says, adding that violence against police officers has icreased. When he calls for back-up, Zigmund says he has no guarantee that he'll get assistance. "Law enforcement has gotten a lot harder over the past few years," he said. "We're being asked to do a lot more with a lot less." Zigmund and other officers are wearing black bands over their badges as a sign of respect for Manhattan Beach police officer Martin Ganz, who was killed during a routine traffic stop last week. It's an incident that hits too close to home. Zigmund said that he and other police officers have talked about the Ganz shooting and about what the slain officer might have been able to do to save himself. "Cops are very critical of each other," he said. Zigmund said police prefer to believe that an officer killed in the line of duty might have been able to do something, anything, to avoid being shot. As one of three field sergeants on the night shift, Zigmund roams the areas that he is responsible for. He works from 6 p.m. until 6:30 a.m. on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. The city is broken into five sectors. On this particular evening, after 3 a.m., only 17 units are patroling the city. Normally, the Police Department likes to keep a minimum of four units in each sector. Each sector has six beats.