By SUSAN PARK

We've all seen it on TV: a gunman is loose in the neighborhood and the police are staked out trying to catch him.

We view countless aerial sweeps taken by photographers in helicopters. We see the SWAT teams crouching behind dumpsters and searching through backyards. The event becomes all the buzz and a crowd gathers around the TV at work, in the coffee shop, or at the department store.

We all know someone who knows someone who's related to someone who lives in one of the houses. We hope they're all right. And we thank God it isn't happening in our neighborhood.

But what if it was?

On July 20, my husband Clayton and I experienced in real life what we had seen on TV: a gunman loose in our neighborhood. Around 6 p.m., a teenager - thin and about 5 foot 7 inches tall with short hair, aged 14 to 18 years old - had threatened a man with a shotgun in the parking garage of a nearby apartment building.

The teenager had asked the man to lie down on the floor, but the man wouldn't comply and instead pressed a nearby button which opened the garage door. A passerby saw the commotion and dialed 9-1-1. The spooked teenager took off running.

The cops came in droves (40 to 50 or so). A helicopter and a canine unit were called in to sweep the neighborhood.

My husband and I live in the eastern part of the Haller Lake neighborhood. It's basically a no-man's land as far as the city's concerned since it doesn't appear on their neighborhood maps. It's a thin sliver of land between I-5 and 15th Avenue NE which became dissected from the rest of the 80-year-old neighborhood when the freeway went through in the '60s. Because of our proximity to Northgate Mall, we have been a victim of car prowls by bored teenagers. We have a small network of Block Watches who keep an eye out for each other. Every once in awhile, we call the police and since we're so close to the North Precinct on Meridian Avenue, the cops are able to swoop in rather quickly.

My husband and I first realized something was up when he was diverted from his usual route home by a police car staked out at the end of the street. "There's something going on up the road," he said, "Is there anything on the news?"

We flipped through the TV channels, KOMO, KIRO, and KING, but saw nothing. "Maybe it's a training exercise or something," Clayton speculated. He called the media relations line at the Seattle Police Department but had to leave a message.

We decided to walk down to see what was going on for ourselves. On the way, we saw our neighbors, the Nguyens, outside building a fence. "Have any idea what's going on?" we asked. They didn't.

Then we stopped at Jane's house. As we stood on the street talking, an officer drove by slowly looking from house to house. We waved. He waved back, but didn't stop to explain.

As I waited, Clayton walked down to the next intersection where a policeman had blocked off the street to ask him what was going on. He quickly came back to report: "A teenager is on the loose with a gun and he suggests that we stay inside and lock the doors."

"What?" I said in disbelief.

As we walked back home, we stopped and talked to our other neighbors, many of whom were sitting with the door wide open to let in the cool evening air. Our neighbor Bob asked: "Why isn't it on the news?"

"I guess because no one has called it in," I said. Being the media, I know how hard it is to find out what's going on. We basically have to wait for someone to give us a tip. When I worked at the Seattle Times, I remember seeing reporters listen to a police scanner in the news room. TV stations often advertise "news tips" lines for this very reason.

The next morning, Officer Clem Benton with the Seattle Police Department returned our call. I bombarded him with a slew of questions: Who do you inform and how? How far from the crime scene do you notify or evacuate residents?

What Officer Benton said surprised me. Although the Metro Bus Service is usually informed, SPD relies on the media to notify residents.

"Normally, we don't send guys door to door. We do a search and if someone comes out (side), we tell them this is what we're doing."

I told him a policeman drove right by us and didn't stop to inform us.

Benton added that it depends on the severity of the situation. For instance, if someone is barricaded inside with a gun and shooting out at the neighbors, the police will try to evacuate the area, but he added: "We can't make people leave. We can suggest that they leave or stay inside."

I asked him why SPD doesn't take advantage of the network of Block Watch Captains, a group of volunteer citizens who every quarter distribute crime reports to their neighbors? Many have a phone tree with the names and numbers of all of their surrounding neighbors. Community Councils often utilize them to distribute newsletters door to door and save postage. In a situation like this, it could prove invaluable.

I am reminded of the recent incident where a gunman who robbed a Wells Fargo bank took an elderly couple hostage and hid in their home while police searched their neighborhood. Officer Benton explained that often they wouldn't normally have time to call the Block Watch Captains although this ordeal lasted 12 hours. In addition, Benton explained that dispatch doesn't keep a list of the Block Watch Captains since they are organized by the Crime Prevention Department. He also added that even if they did, there isn't always a Block Watch Captain for every block.

Although true that there aren't enough Block Watch Captains, it seems to me that since SPD has worked so hard on organizing them, it would be a simple feat to have dispatch call or fax the four or five contacts in the surrounding blocks in such extreme cases. After all, how often does such a thing happen in your neighborhood? As one woman reported on KIRO the next morning, she's lived here 40 years and has never seen such a thing.