The East Precinct held its first monthly community crime meeting session at Seattle University’s Admission and Alumni building Thursday night. The meeting is a monthly opportunity for the community to receive updates on current police issues and the talk about the latest crime and safety incidents with SPD officials. Previously, most East Precinct Crime Prevention Coalition meetings had been held at the Seattle Vocational Institute near 23rd and Jackson. Here are the notes from the April meeting:
- SPD touted its arrest of two alleged street robbers that CHS reported earlier this month. They’re still in jail on big bonds — including the teenage suspect — and the number of robberies has gone dramatically down since they were taken off the street. CHS will be reporting more on this as the legal process plays out.
- A prolific car prowl suspect was arrested in March, and car prowls have gone down 46% since then. SPD reminds to never leave anything valuable in your car. It only takes the prowlers a few seconds to break a window and grab laptops, GPS, briefcases, or MP3 players. We’ll have more on this bust soon.
- An arrest was made in a burglary case at Seattle U. The door to the dean’s office was pushed in, number of things taken including a laptop and a set of master keys. Alert cops saw a known suspect nearby at Broadway & Pike, searched him and found drugs on him and the set of master keys, which saved Seattle U a ton of money.
- Residential burglaries are up significantly from last month, but still within the average range of 2009. 50% of residential break-ins don’t involve force, but come through unlocked doors or windows, SPD says. Crime prevention coordinator warns that “It’s not a lock if you don’t lock it up.”
- Business burglaries are up significantly also, but within the approximate average. They spiked last month, back to average now
- Auto thefts increased near the end of last year, but SPD has seen reduction every month until last month, where there as a slight increase
- A Seattle U rep reported a surge in car prowls near campus.
- Last year’s Drug Market Initiative made a serious improvement in the area around 23rd & Union last year. For six months neighbors around it marveled at how little drug dealing and associated loitering they saw in the area. But by March there were reports of things picking up again, though at a much lower level. A block watch captain said that residents around 24th & Union are seeing a “constant sales presence” now, including a lot of vehicle traffic of buyers from out of the neighborhood. The activity is still lower than before DMI, but the uptrend is worrying. Police officers in the area have noticed too. Lt. Sean O’Donnell said “We at SPD are certainly not blind to [that increase in drug activity]. We are taking appropriate actions, and rest assured that we are aware of that and we are working on it.”
I agree with the statement about sales activity being back up. I live near 21st and Union, and that convenience store was a hot spot. It calmed down dramatically after the arrests, but it seems it’s increasing again. It still isn’t anywhere near as ‘busy’ as it was last summer, but it does worry me because the warm weather is returning and that usually puts more people outside, and into later hours. I hope this isn’t a case of the police saying, “See? We fixed it,” and then forgetting to follow up later. 24th & Union might be getting attention, but I hope 21st is too.
It is disheartening to see the drug activity picking up on union between 20th-24th. it def seems to be concentrated in front of the union carry out and Thompson’s/Keybank. You would think that between a large USPS branch, a state liquor store and a hugely successful bank, not to mention a sub-standard 76 station and a semi part-time police bathroom break stop off that this situation would have been solved.
I had resumed frequenting the businesses there (Katy’s, 20/20 cycles, cortona, the liquor store, central cinema and even the gas station, but i fear I may have to stop because it is simply way, way too dangerous for a single white woman to walk the nearby sidewalks after a movie etc., and with the last bus blowing through at 1230 it seems staying home is becoming more of a forced option.
I think also that if metro were to enforce its no loitering policies at the shelters–which are often used as a sheltered waiting point for a drug meet-up, we’d see more of a drop off. Perhaps reducing the number of downhill stops W of 18th on union would decrease the activity?