Tonight was the meeting of the East Precinct Crime Prevention Coalition, which is a monthly opportunity for neighbors to chat with police officials about crime trends on this side of town.
The feature presentation was from members of the city’s Youth Violence Initiative:
- The goal is to intercept kids aged 12-17 that have already had brushes with the law and/or street violence
- The program is fully approved and funded for $8 million over the next two years
- The Urban League is coordinating efforts in the Central District. West Seattle will likely be managed by SW Youth and Family Services. SE Seattle isn’t quite that far along yet, but may be managed by a consortium of other groups.
- Officers will be placed in middle schools in soft-uniforms to get to know kids and try to build positive relationships with them
- Social workers will address the needs of each kid referred into the program and get them signed up for mentoring, help, and positive activities
- They’ve got 220 job opportunities for kids this summer
- The kick-off is July 7th at the Rainier Vista Boys & Girls Club
General crime updates from Captain McDonagh:
- Violent crimes are still a major focus for officers, but have been relatively low
- Property crimes increase with nicer weather. Lock your doors and windows, and beware not to leave the house open when you’re out working in the yard. Thieves will walk in, grab something easy, and walk right back out
- Residential burglaries were down a bit in May
- Non-Residential burglaries were up, with several repeat hits of businesses
- Car prowls and auto accessories up more than 100%. People leave things overnight, thieves go down the street and hit multiple cars at one time.
- East Precinct officers supported the vice raid of a brothel in Eastlake (the very NW corner of the precinct)
- There has been a string of strong-arm robberies around Garfield this year, but it was down a bit in May. A couple of arrests have been made, and today there was a good montage pick of other suspects that will likely result in arrest warrants. One theory is that it has been perpetrated by an organized group, and police hope that these arrests will break that ring up.
Community crime updates from citizens at the meeting:
- Seattle U security officers recently spotted a business burglary in progress near the school, called SPD, and arrests were made.
- Burglars busted at 24th & Olive – They’ve got a very organized block watch around there, and one of the members spotted thieves in a neighbors backyard late at night. 911 was called, officers arrived quickly, arrests were made, and stolen property was returned to the victim.
- Leschi recently had a great community event at Flo Ware Park, with 250 people attending. They’re planning additional events there on the last Saturday of June, July, and August.
- Neighbors around Homer Harris park had a clean-up and found a significant amount of drug paraphenalia
- A neighbor near Plum Tree park is having problems with people hanging out late at night with loud music. We’ve also heard a number of narcotics calls to that area during the day.
I wish they’d spend more time dealing with the violence in our neighborhood rather than sending 100 officers to bust a peaceful brothel.
Lately I have seen more guys congregating, selling, & menacing walkers by (and drivers) outside the convenience store