Stop by! We’ll be at 2 events on Sunday, May 19th

Sorry for the late notice, but we’ll be among the vendors and community groups at the High Point Bee Festival this Sunday, May 19th, from 11 AM – 3 PM. We’ve included the informational flyer below.

Bee Festival flyer

We’ll also be at Alki Summer Streets during that same timeframe. We’ll be in the “Orange Zone” between 61st and 63rd Ave SW, as shown on on the following map.

Alki Summer Streets 2013 – location flyer

We hope you’ll stop by one or both events to learn more, pick up informational materials, find out how you can get involved, ask questions or just say hi!

FYI, you can also find and like both events on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/West-Seattle-Bee-Garden/512486472142987?fref=ts

www.facebook.com/pages/SDOT-Summer-Streets/185475517609

May community safety newsletter focuses on car prowls!

We received a new edition of the Seattle Police Department newsletter this week!  Mark Solomon, the Crime Prevention Coordinator for the SW & South Police Precincts usually sends these out monthly. We’ve included it below in both .pdf and .jpg format.

Community Safety newsletter (in .pdf format):  Seattle Police newsletter – May 2013

Seattle Police newsletter – May 2013 – page 1 of 2

Seattle Police newsletter – May 2013 – page 2 of 2

If your neighborhood doesn’t yet have a Block Watch, Mark is your contact for helping you get started! You’ll find his contact info at the end of the newsletter.

Follow-up: Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED)

We had a good turnout for our most recent West Seattle Block Watch Captains’ Network meeting – many thanks to Officer Jon Kiehn for his informative CPTED presentation and to those of you who attended and participated!

A key takeaway from the meeting: there are several aspects to CPTED that work together to deter criminals. These include Natural Surveillance, Natural Territorial Reinforcement, Natural Access Control, and Maintenance.

As we mentioned, Officer Kiehn gave a similar presentation (slides are here) to our group in May 2011 that explains these concepts in more detail. He also conducted a CPTED property tour for our group; it was videotaped by the West Seattle Blog and is available to watch on YouTube (here’s a link).

You can also find both of these, along with any past/future presentations and materials, in the CPTED category on the menu in the right sidebar.

Great agenda for our WSBWCN meeting tonight!

Ever wonder how a burglar might view your home? The main focus of our meeting this evening is CPTED, Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design. Officer Jon Kiehn from the Community Police Team will share his insights about things you can do to make your home, workplace or neighborhood less appealing to criminals. Meeting details are here.

Increase in West Seattle gang activity reported

Gang activity was the main topic at the recent West Seattle Crime Prevention Council (WSCPC) meeting on Tuesday, April 16th. If you missed it, as we did, you can find detailed coverage in these reports by the West Seattle Blog and the West Seattle Herald.

http://westseattleblog.com/2013/04/west-seattle-crime-prevention-council-told-of-upswing-in-gunfire-gang-related-activity

http://www.westseattleherald.com/2013/04/18/news/gang-experts-seeing-rise-west-seattle-activity

The Crime Prevention Council meets monthly on 3rd Tuesdays at 7 PM.  Our West Seattle Block Watch Captains’ Network meetings are a week later, on 4th Tuesdays from 6:30-8 PM. Both meetings are held at the SW Police Precinct, 2300 SW Webster Street (at Delridge Ave SW, next to Home Depot). Hope to see you at our next meeting on April 23rd; the agenda is posted here!

Learn (more) about Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design!

Join us this coming Tuesday, the 23rd, for our April meeting!

Officer Jon Kiehn from the Community Police Team will give his very popular presentation on Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED,  pronounced “Sep-Ted”).

Learn how to reduce the chances that your home will be the target for burglaries. It’s an interesting and enlightening presentation (think “target hardening” and “hostile vegetation”).

Even if you saw Officer Kiehn’s presentation last year, you’ll come away with new ideas and insights about changes that you can make for little to no money to make your home and neighborhood a safer place to be. Feel free to send/bring photos if you have specific issues to ask him about!

This presentation was originally scheduled for last month’s meeting; however, SW Precinct Commander, Capt. Kessler was able to stay longer than we had anticipated. If you missed that meeting, here’s the recap.

Meeting schedule (Come early, stay late!)

Tuesday, April 23rd, 2013,  6:30-8 PM
SW Police Precinct, 2300 SW Webster Street (at Delridge Ave SW, next to Home Depot)

6:00-6:30        Arrive early for light snacks, socializing and networking with each other while we set up the room!

6:30-7:00        Introductions, updates, concerns, sharing ideas.

7:00-8:00        Learn about CPTED with Officer Jon Kiehn!

8:00-8:30        Feel free to stay after the meeting to continue your discussions.

Everyone is welcome, even if you aren’t a Block Watch Captain! RSVP is appreciated, but not necessary to attend.  You can email us at  wsblockwatchnet@gmail.com or phone us at 206-424-0040.

Hope to see you there!  

Need a tax write-off? Donate to WSBWCN!

We’ve neglected to mention this recently: donations to the West Seattle Block Watch Captains’ Network (WSBWCN) are tax deductable!

You can donate to our group at any time via the Seattle Neighborhood Group (www.sngi.org). You’ll find a “Donate” application in the upper right-hand corner of their home page, then select “W. Seattle Block Watch Network” from the dropdown list of community groups. Seattle Neighborhood Group, our fiscal sponsor, will provide you with a receipt for tax purposes. As you can see on their website, they provide fiscal sponsorship services for many small grassroots community groups such as ours, who do not have 501c3 status yet.

Many thanks to those of you who sponsored or donated to us in 2012 and made our first BW Appreciation Party (last June 22nd) possible! We hope to have a similar fun event sometime in 2013.