Fashion Island sees calm day

If there were a morning rush for early sales on Black Friday, it wasn’t at Fashion Island.

Up to 11 a.m., parking spaces were still available, and the Atrium Court looked more like a dog park for families than the apex of a business bonanza. With all the hype that generally surrounds shopping the day after Thanksgiving, perhaps police would have had their hands full.

Not so much in Newport-Mesa.

Instead of arresting shoplifters and car burglars, Newport Beach police spent the better part of their Friday meeting and greeting store owners and the casual customer.

“Today is just a big PR day,” said bicycle Officer Justin Yee, patrolling Fashion Island.

Yee and his partner, Officer Chris Kimble, patrolled the mall, meeting with the business owners and letting them know they’re there to help and who to call if they need assistance.

“We get asked a lot of ‘what if’ situations,” Kimble said. “Like, what if someone was committing an armed robbery, what would you do?”

Thankfully for police, nothing of the sort looked to happen Friday. Authorities patrolled parking lots looking for suspicious activity and waited for any calls for assistance inside the mall, but for the most part, it didn’t appear any were going to come in by late in the afternoon.

“Everyone’s behaving and just having a good shopping day,” Kimble said. “It’s just a quiet, normal day.”

Even undercover police, noting the mall isn’t normally wall-to-wall shoppers anyway, called it “dead” of activity. Business picked up in the afternoon, but police said they didn’t see an increase in activity.

Shopping centers from Balboa Peninsula to Newport Coast were just as normal, with store employees saying it was just like any other Friday.

Fashion Island’s location doesn’t necessarily lend to the same Black Friday rush as South Coast Plaza, officials said.

There, officials said, they saw the vehicle traffic, but not the crime.

Police urge the public to make sure their cars are locked when they’re away and to keep valuable items out of plain view inside the car.

JOSEPH SERNA may be reached at (714) 966-4619 or at joseph.serna@latimes.com.