West Seattle Crime Prevention Council: Prowls up, burglaries down

First toplines from Tuesday night’s West Seattle Crime Prevention Council meeting: The most dramatic crime trend mentioned by Southwest Precinct Lt. Norm James is a jump in car prowls – 124 in the past month, up from 97 the month before that. Lt. James suspects some of the rise can be pegged to more people reporting the break-ins, but they’ve also been studying the reports to look for a pattern – it seems, not surprisingly, more are happening where there’s easy bridge access (off Fauntleroy, for example), so they believe many car prowlers come from outside West Seattle, get some loot, and turn back around to leave. Emphasis patrols will start in the next few days to see if the crooks can be caught in the act; meantime, if it happens to you, Lt. James stressed the importance of reporting it, so patterns can be detected. On the other hand, residential burglaries are down – 40 in April, a little more than half the rate for the month before. Two other toplines: High Point is looking for 120 people to each devote just two hours a month to helping keep watch on the neighborhood this summer – they’re calling it the High Point Peace and Safety Team; you can reach Miranda Taylor through the High Point Neighborhood Association (its official website is at highpointneighborhood.org). Also, WSCPC president Dot Beard handed out a flyer (see it here) asking people to write the city to save the Crime Prevention Coordinator jobs, which are reportedly in danger of being cut if a federal grant is not renewed. City councilmembers’ contact info is here; mayor contact info is here. ADDED WEDNESDAY MORNING: One other note: There’s a new officer joining the Community Police Team: Jonathan Kiehn – Officer Jill Vanskike is leaving CPT to join the detective team.

The West Seattle Crime Prevention Council meets the third Tuesday of most months, 7 pm, SW Precinct.

11 Replies to "West Seattle Crime Prevention Council: Prowls up, burglaries down"

  • taxnomore May 19, 2010 (6:56 am)

    if it happens to me. i will be shooting.

  • Skeeter May 19, 2010 (8:16 am)

    Does *anyone* know how to get ahold of the webmaster for highpointneighborhood.com? Under “services” and “safety” it has the security company from about two years ago listed. So if someone has a security concern they can’t look on the website to get a phone number. Very frustrating…

  • CB May 19, 2010 (8:50 am)

    Anything more than one burglary should be considered a crisis. Too bad the cops are busy collecting taxes for Olympia instead of doing the job they signed up for. There is no incentive for them to stop theft, as there is no financial gain for them or the state.

  • Ken May 19, 2010 (10:48 am)

    High Point Peace and Safety Team

    Is probably printed somewhere in 27 non English languages.

    SHA wants the neighborhood to remain insulated and it seems the HPNA wants the same thing for very different reasons.

    I posted on the website a little until it became clear the site was home sales oriented.

    If you really want to contact Ms. Taylor, perhaps her contact form on her web site would be suitable, since there does not seem to be a publicly available email address,
    http://www.taylorgoodhealth.com/contact

    • WSB May 19, 2010 (10:52 am)

      Sorry everyone is having trouble reaching the HP folks – I will send HPNA president Jennifer Cobb, who is actually quite community-involved and posted here a number of times after the recent stabbing incident, a note … TR

  • Murl May 19, 2010 (10:55 am)

    Forgive the sarcasm here, but could it have anything to do with the fact that the Seattle Police released a statement several months ago stating that it would NO LONGER RESPOND TO CAR PROWL CALLS?
    As far as shooting (as another comment mentioned), there was a case in Northgate where the car owner is doing prison time for killing a thief as he was taking stuff from his car and still in the driveway!
    Good thing we have seat belt patrols, aggressive drving stings…I mean patrols and cameras to give out tickets (more sarcasm – sorry)
    Mmmmm – the smell of justice!

    • WSB May 19, 2010 (11:14 am)

      I don’t recall that statement and can’t find evidence of it online – do you recall where/when you saw it? I can tell you from scanner-listening, they certainly do respond to car-prowl calls … if a “life safety” call conflicts, that takes precedence, but otherwise … TR

  • Jennifer Cobb May 19, 2010 (11:25 am)

    The official site of the High Point Neighborhood Association is http://www.highpointneighborhood.org. Thanks for the note about the security numbers; we’ll get those updated today. We will also be posting information about the Peace & Safety Team on the site and on our facebook site.

    Miranda Taylor’s contact information is:
    miranda59@qwest.net or phone 206.932.4371.
    I’m the President of HPNA and my contact info is jennifer.cobb@highpointneighborhood.org or 206.369.3177.

    We’d love to see people get involved!

  • tincanrocket May 26, 2010 (1:01 pm)

    @CB

    Care to substantiate your claims?

  • sonic_07 May 30, 2010 (10:30 am)

    My girlfriends car was broken into AGAIN. There seems to be a lot more activity in the north admiral district. Even just going to 7-11 by the bus stop at night doesn’t seem safe.

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