(Photo by Christopher Boffoli)
For the first time since its formation (largely via Facebook group), members of the West Seattle Blockwatch Captains Network met face-to-face this morning. While they all either lead a Block Watch group or are interested in doing so, the new network isn’t part of the official process – it’s born of the fact (as discussed in the WSB Forums a few months ago) that there’s no formal blockwatch-to-blockwatch communications system. (Southwest Precinct Crime Prevention Coordinator Benjamin Kinlow, the area’s point person for Block Watch formation, keeps a list, but that list can’t be shared with members.) Co-organizer Deb Greer shared detailed notes of what they discussed today and what “next steps” they’re planning on – read on:
Lots of great discussion among the 14 Blockwatch captains that met at Giannoni’s Pizzeria this morning to kick off the inaugural meeting of our new Blockwatch Captains’ Network. Thanks again to Donna Burns for opening the building for our meeting and being such a gracious host, including pizza coupons for the attending captains!
The meeting was organized by Deanie Schwarz (Highland Park), Deb Greer (Hansen View) and Karen Berge (Hansen View). The other captains came from “the safest neighborhood in West Seattle” to the “neighborhood with the most crimes committed in West Seattle” and everywhere in between.
We filled the 1 ½ hours with introductions and sharing the experiences from each neighborhood group. As well, we had discussions about future meetings, ways to connect with captains who are not online, and ideas on how to get our message out. We also had a large West Seattle map where we marked the Blockwatch locations we now know about.
Some highlights:
*Many of the Blockwatch groups are much larger than the recommended number of households. We had representation from neighborhoods with a Blockwatch of up to 174 homes and several with 50-80 homes. Many times, the blocks with no Blockwatch of their own just joined existing ones because there was no leader for their own block. Also, because crime was happening in the alleys, Blockwatch areas were expanded to the next street.
*Most groups, but not all, have moved to email or online groups (such as Google Groups) to communicate. However, some groups distribute newsletters and make phone calls as their primary method of communication. One person mentioned the effectiveness of using a phone tree approach. A neighborhood using Google Groups talked of the benefit of their e-mail address list being secure, but still allowing people to communicate with each other.
*Most of the groups meet at least yearly for the annual Night Out potluck. One group holds quarterly meetings each year.
*The issue was raised about neighborhoods that are organized as a Blockwatch becoming complacent in reporting small crimes that don’t seem significant at the time. It makes it hard for the neighborhood and the police to identify patterns.
*Two of the attendees mentioned that they had personally been the victims of identity theft.
Ideas shared:
*Use of “you are on camera” signs and/or surveillance equipment. This has been very effective, especially for one neighborhood that had a problem with drug dealing.
*Use of Blockwatch signs was also mentioned as helping deter potential crime.
* Some Blockwatch groups have combined Blockwatch with emergency preparedness efforts (such as SNAP training) and found that it broadened participation in the Blockwatch.
Expanding the Blockwatch Captains’ Network:
*As expected, there was a lot of interest in finding out who the other Blockwatch captains are and ways to do that.
*At least one group is planning to do outreach to identify other Blockwatch areas during the Night Out event in August. They plan to approach neighboring blocks that they can see/hear participating nearby.
The flyers about the Blockwatch Captains’ Network (posted earlier this week) can be forwarded or printed out and distributed to help spread the word about this effort. As well, there is a new flyer that has more information about getting started using Facebook that you can help distribute.
*Another outreach suggestion was to have a “Blockwatch Captains’ Appreciation Day”, similar to the Precinct appreciation day, where Captains could meet each other, meet with police from their areas, and generally be appreciated by the public for all the work they do.
*Some raised concerns about what is going to happen to the Blockwatch program if it loses the federal funding.
*Someone raised the issue of whether we should apply for a neighborhood matching funds grant.
Next steps:
*There was general consensus that a good approach would be to meet monthly for a few months while this group is forming and growing; then begin to meet quarterly after it is a little more established.
*Several venues for future meetings were suggested that are or could be free to us.
*We talked about having a Blockwatch captains’ potluck in a park during the summer, instead of a meeting, so the Blockwatch captains can just talk and get to know each other.
* There was discussion about whether to meet during the week or on Sat mornings. I am going to put out a call for discussion or voting on which would work best for the most people that will show up. In the meantime, while we are doing monthly meetings we may have it on a Sat morning on one month and on a weeknight on another month while we are still ramping up and then come to a decision before the quarterly meetings. I’ll see what the consensus is.
Thanks for coming, everyone! It was a great first meeting.
Deb Greer
Those notes also were linked from the Blockwatch Captains Network FB group – which you can join here – along with the flyer that was mentioned (see it here). One other way to connect with fellow West Seattleites interested in preventing and fighting crime, along with other safety issues, is to come to the next monthly West Seattle Crime Prevention Council meeting, 7 pm April 20 at the SW Precinct (Delridge/Webster).
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