By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

That “bag of bullets,” as one neighbor described it, is part of the reason why residents of one Highland Park neighborhood gathered for a “Living Room Conversation“ with police.

The neighbors who organized it, after surfacing safety concerns to various city departments, invited us to sit in on the recent gathering in the living room of their home near Westcrest Park. They were joined by SPD Sgt. Dorian Korieo, whose community-outreach-centered work supervising 32 people includes the living-room program (launched more than a decade ago), and Officer German Barreto, community-liaison officer at the Southwest Precinct.

“It’s your chance to ask a police officer (something) without there being a crisis,” explained Sgt. Korieo.

A question came quickly: “How can we help you?”

“We’re hiring,” Korieo smiled.

But you might not be looking for work, police or otherwise. So another way you can help is to report everything, the SPD reps said. “Mayor Harrell is very clear – if it doesn’t have a stat on it, it didn’t happen.”

For non-urgent incidents, they acknowledged the online-reporting system is somewhat clunky, but said it’s being overhauled. For incidents happening now or a short time ago, call or text 911. One attendee worried about “retaliation” from whomever she might be reporting. You can be anonymous, Officer Barreto assured her. If you want police to check back with you after investigating, you can ask for “phone contact,” not in-person contact, so an officer won’t be seen coming to your door.

Referring to a possible domestic-violence situation, one neighbor said she wanted to report it more so it would “be documented” than getting a police response “right now.” Korieo said, “We’d rather go to DVs and have them not be a thing, than be a thing.”

One “thing” that surfaced repeatedly during the discussion was gunfire. One neighbor brought the plastic bag of evidence shown above. Repeated rounds of suspected gunfire are a major reason why the residents who hosted the gathering started contacting the city (including Councilmember Rob Saka, whose district-relations director Leyla Gheisar attended) – they wanted to see a better way of reporting these incidents. “The shootings are insane,” one neighbor. The SPD reps said it again: Call 911. “I’d rather have you all call 911 than nobody call 911,” which happens sometimes because everyone assumes someone else already has. (One person didn’t call 911 because they didn’t hear anyone screaming. Call anyway, they were told.)

Can the neighbors put their own security camera on a utility pole? Answer: No. (But later it was explained that you can register your home camera[s] with SPD so they know who has a camera if something happens in the area.)

Other concerns: Auto thefts (and dumped cars stolen elsewhere). Mailbox break-ins. Racing, since their street is without speed humps and runs parallel to one that has them. Slow or no police response. RVs. Off-leash dogs.

Then the SPD reps pulled up some stats – citywide, not neighborhood-specific:

*168 gunfire responses through March this year, compared to 140 last year
*1,253 shell casings recovered in that time, up from 832, and 600 the year before that

The casings go into a system that checks what amounts to a “fingerprint for shell casings,” via the state crime lab. “We can trace whether it’s a new gun [not on record] or involved in something before” – and the “vast majority of shootings are coming from the same guns,” said Sgt. Korieo. “When we arrest somebody with one of these [repeatedly used] guns, we can trace back and see all the shootings they were involved with.”

Also on the subject of guns – no stats on ownership, Korieo said, since they’re not registered. Barreto added that if you choose to have a gun, “just be sure it’s secured in a safe that’s not gonna get” (stolen or broken into). “And don’t leave it in your car.”

Other weapons? Korieo, who leads Taser training too, did have a stat to cite, saying only about half of them work nationwide, and it might take up to 10 seconds for it to start to work. And remember, he warned, “any weapon you bring to the fight can be used against you.” The SPD reps suggested personal alarms – “they get noticed.” Stranger kidnappings, they said, are very rare, but if someone tries to grab you, “fight for your life, no holds barred.”

More stats, this time for auto thefts:

*80 percent of the cars being stolen now are Hyundais and Kias, up from 70 percent of the 8,550 vehicles stolen in Seattle last year
*Most are used for “secondary crimes,” from drive-by shootings to crash-and-grab burglaries to homicides – “we want to recover the vehicles so we can check for fingerprints”

But, the sergeant said, vehicle thefts are slowing right now – about 20 a day.

Regarding the Legislature approving the initiative loosening restrictions on pursuits, he noted that SPD has its own policy and that will be “slower to change.”

The discussion continued bouncing around a variety of topics. What if you call 911 and get pushback – they say they won’t send an officer? “Ask for their supervisor.” As the SPD reps pointed out, 911 is no longer part of the Police Department, it’s part of the CARE Department. (But, it was noted later, low SPD staffing levels may play a role in response realities, too; Korieo said many shifts have below-minimum staffing, which is when calls are put out for officers to work OT “augmenting” to try to get to minimum levels. Or even if minimum levels are achieved, certain types of calls can require extra backup – two officers if a suspect might be contacted, three or four if it’s a “scenes of violence”-type weapon-related injury, etc.)

Meantime, if you’re reporting a not-happening-now crime by phone, 911 might connect you to an officer in the Telephone Reporting Unit (TRU), six officers who, Sgt. Korieo said, handle 20 percent of reports.

Are catalytic-converter thefts still a problem? Not as much as they used to be. One emerging problem, though, according to the SPD reps, is copper-wire theft. Korieo said Washington and Oregon account for 30 percent of all copper-wire theft in the U.S.

Eventually the topic of RVs emerged. “If they were just quietly living their lives,” they wouldn’t be a concern, said one resident, “but we have recurring situations where they take over a block,” like at 9th/Henderson, and haven’t been receptive to neighbors’ offers of help. If there’s “illegal behavior” happening right now, call 911, Gheisar urged. Otherwise, the SPD reps said, use Find It Fix It – complaint volume is one of the factors considered by the Unified Care Team when discussing removals, which are currently happening “four or five (times) a week,” Korieo said.

Find It Fix It was also recommended for a traffic-calming request on streets besieged by racing, in addition to reporting it when/if it happens.

Another question – how should mail theft be handled? Report to SPD and also to the US Postal Inspection Service.

The night ended with neighbors expressing interest in setting up a personal-safety class (at least 15 people are required for that). And in response to a question about how much awareness is too much, regarding what’s going on in the neighborhood, Officer Barreto offered: “Hyper-vigilance is always a good thing.”

Also toward neighborhood cohesion – registration will open Wednesday (May 1) for this year’s Night Out block parties (August 6).

Interested in a Living Room Conversation? Sgt. Korieo’s contact info is on the program webpage.