Three notes in West Seattle Crime Watch this afternoon. First, two car prowls reported this morning on the south end of Beach Drive – thanks to Whitney for the tip; they’re both listed on SPD’s Tweets by Beat (here’s our list of all West Seattle tweets) – they were in the 6000 and 6500 blocks of Beach Drive.

Second, from Chelsea:

I wanted to let you know about some vandalism happening in the 4800 block of Fauntleroy Way SW. On Saturday (10/6) between midnight and 7:00 a.m. the passenger side mirror was ripped off of my vehicle. The car was parked on Fauntleroy directly in front of my building in a well lit area. I heard two men arguing around 2:30 a.m. but can’t see the street from my unit. No other vehicles on the block were damaged.

This morning (10/10) at 7:30 a.m. I saw that another vehicle had the same damage (mirror broken and hanging from the wires). No other vehicles in the block were damaged. When I took the dog out at 10 p.m. last night, the vehicle was intact, so the damage happened sometime between 10 p.m. and 7:30 a.m.

I have filed an incident report with the police department.

Finally, the official announcement from the West Seattle Crime Prevention Council – the special guest for next week’s WSCPC meeting will be Ian Goodhew, chief of staff for the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. Got a question about what happens AFTER someone is arrested? Why are plea bargains made? Why are sentencing recommendations sometimes seem light? He’s the expert. 7 pm Tuesday, October 16th, Southwest Precinct meeting room, all welcome.

(From left, Melissa Chin from Seattle City Attorney’s Office, Cheryl Bishop from ATF, Jill Otake from U.S. Attorney’s Office)
From tonight’s meeting of the West Seattle Crime Prevention Council at the Seattle Police Southwest Precinct, toplines on topics from the latest property-crime rate, to last fall’s White Center-area raids, to an impromptu primer on the criminal-justice system, with three guests (above), all ahead & more:Read More

Just got word from leadership of the West Seattle Crime Prevention Council that they are NOT canceling tonight’s 7 pm meeting – during which, besides getting updates on local crime trends from Southwest Precinct police, they also are scheduled to hear from a representative of the Aggressive Driver Response Team. The meeting’s at the precinct, Delridge/Webster, all welcome (door’s on the west side of the building, by the public parking lot).

Meantime, we promised to follow up on the helicopter seen over Highland Park for a while last Saturday night. Took a while to get the answer because of the holiday weekend, but King County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Sgt. Cindi West says it was a search for two people who had stolen from a White Center store and ran across the city/county line into West Seattle. Full story on our partner site White Center Now.

Last but not least, another car break-in reported – this one by Kristina:

Not only was our car broken into, they knocked over our snowman and our trash can. A video camera and a parking pass were the only things stolen also the insert inside the console . No damage to vehicle either. We live in North Admiral.

First set of quick notes from last night’s West Seattle Crime Prevention Council meeting: Southwest Precinct operations Lt. Pierre Davis briefed the group, as usual, on crime-trend highlights:

*Residential burglaries, up 2 percent
*Non-residential burglaries, down 6 percent
*Auto thefts, up 10 percent
*Car prowls “way down” thanks to some recent arrests that “led to others”

Overall, Lt. Davis’s assessment: “We’re getting our bad guys, but there are still a lot more out there.” He stressed that “if you see something, say something” – call 911 if what you see is happening now; don’t worry about possibly “bothering” them with a non-emergency, as the operator’s job is to figure out the best way to route your call. Report #2, coming up – highlights from Metro Transit Police Chief Lisa Mulligan‘s presentation on what her team is all about. (Side note: WSCPC won’t meet in December, so its next meeting is January 17th.)

From tonight’s West Seattle Crime Prevention Council meeting:

CRIME TRENDS: Southwest Precinct Operations Lt. Pierre Davis described it as an “up-and-down-type summer,” with burglary “spikes” at times. He said Community Police Team officers (including Ken Mazzuca and Kevin McDaniel, who were also at the meeting) were tasked with helping solve the puzzle, and that led to “very, very favorable arrests” of the “more prolific individuals out there in the West Seattle community” that put a “big dent” in burglaries, car prowls, and similar crimes – including suspects he says were to blame for more than half the burglaries.

He says there were no particular neighborhoods being hit harder than others – it would differ widely “as if a salt shaker were sprinkled all over (the map)” – and so crime analysis was done over and over again, yielding “fantastic arrests.”

As for specific types of crime, Lt. Davis said that car thefts are currently running “a few up from our norm,” which is 10/month, currently running at 13. Burglaries? “They’ve gone way down and we’re particularly happy about that.” Lt. Davis thanked alert community members and advice from Crime Prevention Coordinator Mark Solomon, “which has paid off greatly … we’ve gotten some fantastic tips” from people who provided helpful information that assisted them in arresting suspects. He says they’re also working to link suspects to more cases, if applicable, so they can be prosecuted under the Repeat Burglary Initiative and potentially get tougher sentences.

IDENTITY THEFT: Angela Kaake, senior deputy prosecuting attorney with the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, was the meeting’s special guest, with a presentation featuring lots of data about its prevalence, as well as advice on prevention and protection, plus a window into what it takes for successful prosecution. (She’s also on the Greater Puget Sound Financial Fraud and Identity Theft Task Force.)

Want to avoid becoming a victim of identity theft? She had specific advice – for prevention and for what to do if it happens anyway – read on:Read More

First of two reports from tonight’s West Seattle Crime Prevention Council meeting at the Southwest Precinct: The burglary “spike” reported last month by Capt. Steve Paulsen is over, according to operations Lt. Pierre Davis. He presented one specific statistic as evidence: The second full week in April, this area had 23 burglaries. Second full week in May, there were five. (We doublechecked the online police-reports map, which shows even fewer, if you configure it for 5/8-5/14.) Lt. Davis attributes the drop to more arrests: “We went out and corralled a bunch of our bad guys – we really knocked ’em dead.” But don’t let your guard down, he said (and while he didn’t mention them specifically, yesterday’s Arbor Heights incidents underscored that) – keep an eye out in your neighborhood, particularly as vacation season kicks in next month and more people are away, and when you see someone or something, get as much descriptive information as you can – car descriptions, suspect descriptions.

Speaking of keeping an eye out, Karen Berge from the West Seattle Blockwatch Captains Network announced at meeting’s end that their next meeting is next Tuesday, 6:30 pm, also at SW Precinct. Coming up later: Current drug-abuse trends, from tonight’s guest speaker, a regional expert who spoke to the group 2 1/2 years ago (WSB coverage here).

(SPD’s Lt. Pierre Davis (left) and Lt. Darin Chinn talk with community members at the SW Precinct)

Story and photos by Jason Grotelueschen
Reporting for West Seattle Blog

West Seattle residents and Block Watch leaders gathered Tuesday night at Southwest Precinct for the monthly meeting of the West Seattle Crime Prevention Council, to hear positive news about recent crime trends – but also to hear a presentation that served as a sobering reminder of ongoing drug problems facing communities as a whole.

SW Precinct Lt. Pierre Davis (pictured above, at left) reported that in the past month, there has been a “39% decrease in property crimes” in West Seattle, following a “spike in activity” in January in which burglaries and car prowls were more frequent.  

Lt. Davis said that SPD “mobilized more patrols” in response to that spike, and worked closely with the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office and community members to identify troublesome individuals and “basically take them off the streets.”  He cited yesterday’s arrest of an “active car prowl suspect” as a major success story in these ongoing efforts, which include a crackdown on catalytic converter thefts from parked cars.  

A major goal, Lt. Davis said, is to build strong cases against the repeat offenders to keep them behind bars longer – more like “25-50 months” versus much shorter sentences. 

Read More

First topline from tonight’s West Seattle Crime Prevention Council meeting at the Southwest Precinct: Crime is notably down. If you’ve noticed we’ve had fewer crime reports lately, it’s not that it’s going unreported – it’s just not happening, according to Capt. Steve Paulsen. Last week, only one burglary was reported in all of West Seattle, he said – bringing the total for the month so far to 11, compared to what would usually be 27 to 30 by midmonth. (We crosschecked with the online police reports – indeed, only one listed from last Wednesday through today.) The precinct commander cited “significant recent arrests” – people suspected of burglarizing homes by day and prowling cars by night, arrested thanks to what Capt. Paulsen described as “outstanding detective work” as well as alert citizens and timely reporting by victims. West Seattle is getting a reputation among thieves as a bad place to do business, he suggested – while promptly cautioning that an uptick in theft is likely within the next month as holiday shopping begins. Time-honored advice: be aware of your surroundings; don’t leave purchases visible in your car while you go from store to store. In one unsolved case, Capt. Paulsen said there’s no arrest yet in last night’s Highland Park armed robbery. Meantime, he introduced “three-quarters of (his newly aligned) command staff”:

At right, Lt. Pierre Davis is the new operations lieutenant – second in command for the precinct – the job Capt. Paulsen had before leaving the SW Precinct early this year for a short stint at the West Precinct (where his SWP successor, Lt. Norm James, now works with former SWP commander Capt. Joe Kessler). At left, Lt. Alan Williams is third-watch commander (night shift); that’s the job from which Lt. Ron Smith, center, moved into the second-watch (day shift) role. Lts. Davis and Williams are new to the SWP. He also noted that the Community Police Team now has three officers (as reported here when one of them, Officer Ken Mazzuca, visited the Admiral Neighborhood Association meeting last week). CPT Officer Jonathan Kiehn, also at tonight’s meeting, praised citizens for providing improved info when calling 911 lately – a topic on which he spoke at the last West Seattle Blockwatch Captains Network meeting. In particular, Officer Kiehn said, they’re giving better descriptions of suspects and the direction in which they’re heading.

Special guest at the meeting: Detective Suzanne Moore, who works on abuse/neglect cases, especially those with elderly victims. She shared two hotline numbers that can be used to report suspected cases – if they involve a residential facility, 800-562-6078; if they involve a private caregiver or home, 206-341-7660.

The West Seattle Crime Prevention Council meets the third Tuesday of the month, but they’re skipping December, so January’s the next meeting; keep an eye on www.wscpc.org.