Burglary boom over, West Seattle Crime Prevention Council told

The only public meeting not canceled last night was the West Seattle Crime Prevention Council, which proceeded with its usual agenda of crime-trend updates from Southwest Precinct leadership, followed by a guest speaker.

Operations Lt. Pierre Davis summarized the wave of burglaries that “hit hard” in West Seattle toward the end of 2011 – and the 17 arrests (as of last week) that he said have made a a dent in the trend. He says regional agencies connected it all to a “burglary ring” that had been working in South King County as well as Seattle (and not just WS), possibly even Portland. The resulting (albeit temporary) explosion in burglaries was so big at one point, he said, that in the first week of December, there were 25 burglaries in this area – but by the first week of January, that was down to five, closer to the usual average. Lt. Davis said arrests were possible largely thanks to good evidence and good witness descriptions – which led to another reminder, if you see something suspicious, call it in.

The night’s special guest was Officer W.J. Witt, who worked with the Aggressive Driver Response Team before moving recently to the new Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Squad. He spent much of his time fielding specific questions – including, what can be done about “aggressive drivers” who aren’t in the usual places often staked out by police. His answer: Call 911 if it’s a problem happening *now*. Otherwise, you can also leave a message with the Traffic division – ADRT is part of that division (not based in WS) – at 206-684-8722. Regarding the CVES – you can get a taste of what they’re up to, by checking out this recent report from SPD Blotter.

J9 January 18, 2012 (9:23 pm)

Oh really? I was burglarized on the fifth of this month.

CB January 19, 2012 (9:49 am)

Good work SPD… let’s keep the heat on the real criminals and not the drivers going 31 mph on Admiral.

Greg January 19, 2012 (11:05 pm)

I would have to disagree with thie title of this post Our place on SW Raymond St. was broken into twice in the last thirty days.

WSB January 19, 2012 (11:18 pm)

I’ll change it to burglary BOOM over. That’s all it was meant to imply, not that there were no more burglaries – as the story itself mentions, there were five the first week of this month. Sorry to hear what happened to you – TR

questionable January 20, 2012 (11:47 am)

@CB: Of course nobody going 31 has ever been targeted on Admiral.. Many of those showcased in the speeding roundups have been 50 mph + , a form of negligence which is, in fact, criminal.