Growing WS Blockwatch & Captains' Network

[inactive]

Greeting WS Neighbors!

This new thread is intended as a continuation of a VERY good conversation begun in Tom’s “Burglary Trends, Thoughts?” thread he started a day ago. I encourage you to read that and continue sharing thoughts for all to ponder. Thanks.

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[inactive]

Hmmm.

Could it be I have attempted to float a lead balloon with this thread?

Three strikes and I’m out of it;

but for now….

BUMP!!!! ;)

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[Duckitude]

Not a lead ballon… but, maybe there are some folks out there who feel that the “slings and arrows” of life are pretty much unpreventable. In other words, you can organize all you want, but there’s always someone with enough “creativity” or “stupidity” or impulsiveness to create problems no matter how organized we are.

Hmmm… that’s a bummer, Duckitude…

However, on the bright side, even though as many of you know it has been seen as controversial by some for me and my neighbors to rely on my exterior surviellance cameras to detect wrong-doers of all types, it has worked, over and over again to not only prevent, but to catch culprits and identify them. Just last Sunday a.m. at 3:20 a.m., some guy came along and stole ladders from a neighbor’s backyard down the street. We have him on candid camera, and are trying to get an I.D.

You can watch all you want, but nothing watches better than an item that doesn’t sleep, go off to work, or vacation, or go on errands…

Honestly, we are a very tight neighborhood, and lucky to be on a dead end which makes it less likely to be messed with, but, even in a tight neighborhood, perps can do harm without being noticed because, well, we can’t all be using our time to watch the neighborhood.

I think it is a great idea to have a central site for West Seattle Block Watch captains and neighborhoods to get together. Of course, it can be done here at the WSB to a large extent.

WSB should establish a forum called Block Watch so that people can post directly there instead of having their posts lost in the crowd of all the other posts.

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[WSB]

Hi – couple things on this.

Actually that’s what the Crime Watch page is for, so you can peruse the latest headlines. Everything published on the home page – and forum links if somebody does put something first – is linked there. It’s our most-read main-site page besides the home page.

While the Forum has a very good readership, the front page news articles, which go through a different part of the publishing system, have the biggest readership and MOST importantly, are searchable and are indexed by Google News, which Forum posts aren’t. Many people come to the site via Google – maybe typing in “Genesee burglaries” or “West Seattle helicopter” – and Google picks up our news stories in a flash.

Right now, the Forum does get indexed, but the headlines don’t work the same way, and it doesn’t go to Google News, and never will.

The other way to keep up with the latest is the Crime category, by which all Crime Watch reports are tagged (in the category list on the sidebar).

We also use Crime Watch for not just “what you’ve reported” but also “what we cover.” So it is a mix of what West Seattleites report and what we uncover through police, going to the scene, etc.

We could certainly establish a crime-related category here if you think it would be helpful in other ways.

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[inactive]

Thanks for responding Duckitude and TR –

Maybe a new Forum Category for Neighborhood Blockwatch Discussion might be useful. I don’t have a crystal ball about where it will lead, but some folks definitely want a place to network about this stuff online.

There are so many comments on stories full of good pertinent BW info that might never get read bcause not everyone reads comments. I know you’ve got crime and public safety covered in a number of permutations on WSB and thanks for that! But maybe a separate forums area where networking around Neighborhood Watch is the primary purpose could be of use. I dunno. I guess I say build it and see if they come? If you don’t like it, you take it down.

Thanks again for the responses.

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[CeeBee]

There is also a school of thought that blocks that have organized as Block Watches might be natural candidates for some Disaster Preparedness activity. Via Block Watch practices, you know each other and how to look out for things, and that’s very essential when neighbors might have to help neighborhs. So I would love a forum where that kind of question can be posed.

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[Tom]

It seems like the most productive thing to do at this point is to figure out how to coordinate the network among the captains/representatives of the various block watches. I’d be curious to hear ideas. I know the SPD cannot give out info, but perhaps we could work with Benjamin Kinslow at the SPD and see if they could contact captains/reps to help us coordinate this. Once we get this network up and running, a lot can follow from that.

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[inactive]

Hey ya’ Tom –

Agreed. I don’t think it’ll hurt to ask Benjamin. We all need to remember though that he is the ONLY one doing ALL the BW stuff for the entire precinct and this is going to be a little out of the box for the way things have been done for YEARS. But hopefully Benjamin will appreciate the intent of the inquiry and SPD will approve of the interest and enthusiasm.

Shall we leave it to you to contact him and get back to everyone here with an update?

Thanks!!!

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[Tom]

I’ll contact Benjamin. It may be a few days before I can get back to the WSB on this since I’m buried in work for the next day or so, but I will try to get it rolling.

Also, at a minimum, those reading this can help us get a start trying to get in touch with block captains in their immediate area. I’ve had some success doing this in my area and it has already led to some valuable tips/information being exchanged.

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