According to a recent Seattle Times editorial, Washington State “last week won a ranking no state wants: It now leads the nation in property-crime rates. Property crime elsewhere in the country dropped, but new FBI crime statistics show that Washington leapt from third in 2012 to first in 2013 thanks in part to a 6 percent jump in car thefts.”
The Seattle Times editors say the disturbing trend “demands changes on the ground and in state sentencing policy.” The editorial cites a recent attempt by reporter Danny Westneat to have Seattle police respond to his vigilante tracking of his wife’s stolen iPhone. Westneat logged the initial car break-in to tracking down a silver mini van transporting the stolen property. His article shows how property crimes may seem to end with a call to an insurance agency, but the theft is the tip of a crime iceberg that continues. Additional crimes include sales of stolen property and potential identity theft.
Are there ways to reduce crime? In Denver, DNA tracking has dropped burglary rates by 40 percent and removed dangerous criminals off the street.
For this week’s Block Watch, the Edmonds crime data here is selected from CrimeMapping for the period Nov. 11-18, 2014. To do the same search, put in “Edmonds Police” or your zip code for the period you wish to know about, such as a day, week, month, or year. This selected information is provided as a public service. If you have tips on any criminal activity, notify the Edmonds Police Department. If you have any block watch comments or feedback, including ideas on reducing area burglary and property crimes, send an email to newstips@myedmondsnews.com.
Again, statistics have shown crime rates go way down with working neighborhood BLOCK WATCH groups. Everybody looking out for everybody else and their property. Again, this would be easy to set up in Edmonds neighborhoods to cut down the crime rates and have a benefit to our town. Block Watch could also include emergency preparedness.
I can’t speak to all neighborhoods but the Lake Ballinger neighborhood where we are located has a Block Watch group
I was a Block Watch captain for eight years in Seattle and there were only two times that we actually had a detective come from Seattle Police to explain important crime watch details and answer questions. In eight years, that was a small expense to the city for getting all neighbors on board and up to date with important information. We also had special Block Watch signs for our area to let criminals know it was a Block Watch watched neighborhood. The rest of the time we just had our regular meetings, discussed what was going on in the neighborhood, and discussed the Block Watch Crime Maps, which we received regularily to KNOW areas where crime was pitching. We also incorporated Emergency Preparedness for the area and this was extensive, and every neighbor was involved in a big way. People like to know they are safe and so are their children. This was in the east Wedgewood neighborhood of Seattle. I could look at the map every time it came, and clearly SEE the area Wedgewood as in the more west Wedgewood with higher crime on the blocks that did not participate in Block Watch. .
So it does work and it brings neighbors closer together and helps with the greater good of being safe where they call “home” Everybody wants that no matter where you call home, “home”
Our block watch was disbanded several years ago due to funding issues. However the same group uses emàil to report any issues to the neighborhood, just no police or city support.
This is a perfect example of why the Edmonds Police Department should receive the necessary budget funding next year to restore the crime prevention unit and add the necessary personnel to shore up the street crimes division. The timing is critical.