That’s King County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg, special guest at this afternoon’s meeting of the Rotary Club of West Seattle at Salty’s on Alki. He shared what he described as a “remarkable” story — one that might cheer you up a bit, if the off-and-on deluge of Crime Watch reports tends to leave you worried. Satterberg said the crackdown on car theft has brought dramatic results – and he says that’s particularly important because car theft is seen as a springboard to other crimes; someone steals a car to go commit burglaries, or worse. Read on to hear about the numbers he listed, what else he told the Rotarians, and after that, a few notes about what they’re up to:

Here are the numbers Satterberg opened with:

In 2006, 996 cars were stolen in what he called the “West Seattle precinct area.”

In 2007, 745.

In 2008, 406.

(The Rotarians are a lively crowd; one called from the back of the room, “That’s because there weren’t any more left!”)

Kidding aside, Satterberg proceeded to explain the anti-auto-theft campaign his department launched a few years back. (For countywide stats, we found this online: “In 2008 there were 8,349 reported car thefts, which is a decrease of 53% from 2005 when there were 17,694 reported car thefts.”)

He started with an attention-grabbing video, from the point of view of a patrol car following a stolen car speeding around West Seattle. (We have a request out to see if we can get a copy of any part of the presentation, the video and/or Power Point slides, to share with you; we expect to have it in hand a little later tonight and will add it to this story, so check back.)

After about 20 minutes – and speed that Satterberg said ranged up to 80 mph – from The Junction through Admiral and Alki – and multiple tire-popping “spike strips,” the stolen car finally was stopped.

That, as Satterberg explained, is just the start of the story. Used to be, he said, a car thief wouldn’t go to state prison until s/he had seven convictions. “That sent the wrong message, that it’s ‘no big deal if you steal a car’.”

In 2005, when the late Norm Maleng was still Prosecuting Attorney, Satterberg said, they lobbied for a change – including tougher sentencing. And he said they brought police more closely into the partnership, asking for more evidence collection necessary to make tighter cases, and prosecutors promised to file cases against the suspects quickly — just like the most serious crimes, such as murder and rape, where they need to file charges within 3 days to keep suspects from going free.

“Catch and release is good for trout, but not for this,” Satterberg quipped.

He also pointed to “top 20” lists compiled by various jurisdictions so that repeat offenders would be recognized more quickly when caught: “Within a year, in Bellevue, we had their entire top 12 in prison. And we would find these people were not just stealing cars, they were using them to do burglaries, steal mail …”

He also brought up a case we remember from our TV days a couple years back – a car-theft suspect who police found stealing another car to get to court to answer the previous charges.

Satterberg also discussed tools such as “bait cars” that draw, and trap, thieves — “we have them all over the state now” — and devices that can read the plates of passing cars and compare them to the plates of known stolen cars, faster than that could ever be done by the human eye and followup data scan. He also had praise for the $10 surcharge on speeding tickets that he says has been raising $6 million a year since summer of 2007, all to fight/prevent auto theft.

And now, he says, sentences are longer, such as 4 years on the 4th convition — “if they’re in prison, they can’t steal your car.” And he says early data suggests the downward trend continued for January of this year, with 644 car thefts countywide; January, Satterberg noted, is the most prolific month for car thieves, because so many people start their car to warm up the engine and defrost the windshield, then go back inside the house, leaving the car running.

Bottom line, most cars are recovered: 92 percent within 11 days, though he admits, some of them have been damaged badly enough that their owners may not be so happy to see them. In most cases, he says, the thieves basically drive them till they run out of gas, then ditch them.

After he wrapped up his discussion of the car-theft crackdown, Satterberg tackled questions from the Rotarians – including one who wondered about the current effects of the county budget crunch. “We’re hurting,” he acknowledged. “I lost 27 positions in my office last year.” And he didn’t deny that some categories of crimes have become lower priorities, because a smaller staff forces prioritization, but he said car theft remains a priority because “it’s had a wonderful, suppressive effect on other crimes – burglaries, assaults, robberies, larcenies.” ID theft is a priority now too, with its own top 20 list, and of those, Satterberg said, “12 are now in prison.”

(You may recall that he was scheduled to speak to the South Delridge/White Center Community Safety Coalition last week; his office says they’re still working to reschedule that appearance for sometime this spring.)

The Rotary Club of West Seattle — westseattlerotary.org — meets at Salty’s at noon each Tuesday; its members are from businesses, schools, nonprofits, and other organizations/establishments all around West Seattle, and political leaders attend too – the lunch crowd today included King County Council Chair (and County Executive candidate) Dow Constantine, who reported a strong start to his fundraising campaign, as well as Seattle School Board rep Steve Sundquist. Before today’s meeting was over, the Rotarians also had inducted a new member and announced progress reports on everything from applications for scholarships they offer, to donations being collected for their upcoming Disco Bingo fundraiser, to work-party volunteering, and more. (One of their biggest annual service events is the holiday shopping spree at SODO Sears; here’s our video coverage of this year’s event.)