EPCPC: Capt Dermody says "Burglaries are driving me nuts"

There was a big crowd for the East Precinct Crime Prevention Coalition tonight, with lots of crime updates, a lot of Q&A with our new city attorney, and new information on the Drug Market Initiative. We'll cover the last two as separate stories and focus this on crime updates.

Burglaries: The big news is that East Precinct commander Captain Dermody is acutely aware of the current issue with burglaries. He said that they were "driving me nuts" and that there are clear patterns as far as where they were clustered and the players who are involved, which includes thirteen main offenders and eleven juveniles. He said that many are "registered" at Garfield (i.e. maybe not attending), and that there's a problem with them being caught, released, and then reoffending. SPD is working closely with county prosecutors and their Repeat Burglar Initiative to get control of that part of the problem.

SPD is working to get county youth detention to hold on to any juvenile suspects that they catch doing anything, with a special emphasis on those involved in burglaries of occupied homes.

One citizen in the audience said that the kids are using girls to serve as lookouts while they're inside stealing. And a regular CDNews contributor said that she had a recent experience where a pedestrian saw her leave her house and he then walked through her front gate. 

In positive burglary news, one resident said that the stolen table saw from our story earlier in the week was recovered a few blocks away. Evidently the thieves got worn out by the weight of their score.

Washington Middle School threats: The threat to shoot kids was made from a disposable cell phone that couldn't be connected to a specific person. He seemed very agitated, named the school specifically, thus resulting in the large response. East Precinct officers are heading up the investigation (instead of Homicide), looking into recently suspended, but no arrests have been made yet.

Problem Neighbors: Residents near 27th & King are having problems with a number of rental properties that are occupied by mental health patients. They've been dealing drugs and "cranked it up like i have never seen in my life" according to one neighbor. 

Problem Shrubs: Neighbors on Spring Street near 25th are having problems with a neighbor who refuses to trim the large shrubs in her planting strip, which are used as a shield for various nefarious activity

"Worse than the South Bronx": That's how one young resident near 14th & Remington Ct. describes his area, with "chaos" of drugs, Seattle U parties, urination, problem bars, $10s of $1000s of dollars changing hands in the streets, and a lack of coordination with the art/park property on 14th.

Nightwatch Problems: One neighbor of the homeless program at 14th & Jackson is facing an adversarial relationship with a number of the program's clients. They urinate and defecate on her property, spit on her door, and she can't get any response or help from the program managers. Her attempts to correct the issues often cause the men to up the ante with further retribution.

More on Peter Holmes and DMI soon...