Alert: We are still seeing the normal trend of a small number of vehicle break ins that we warned about earlier in the year. This trend persists during the summers and has been very similar to numbers and patterns we have seen for the last few years. We have seen an increase in thefts of car parts, especially catalytic converters (not just on Cadillacs). The advice and best plan of action remains to park your vehicles in the driveway, or even better in the garage, remove valuables, and lock them.
Diving in to the numbers: Our statistics remain very normal and low on all accounts. Unfortunately, we also had abnormally low traffic citations. This is disappointing and I have addressed the issue with the contract sergeant and directly with our contract deputies. There are a few reasons that are evident for this degradation in service: We had 2/3 of our deputies take promotions and they were replaced. The new members of the team were getting their bearings, learning the neighborhood, and getting to know how our priorities align with those of their department. There were some scheduling difficulties assigning deputies and we had coverage from district coverage deputies who are not regulars in our community. The important thing to know is that we have been monitoring the behavior and corrections are being made. We should see an improvement in these priorities by the end of this month and have our traffic enforcement back to normal levels. We hope to improve those levels from the old baseline as we await traffic engineering changes from the county.
Again, I want to urge everyone to place recording video cameras on the properties and make sure that one camera has a good view of the street. These cameras are proving to help deter crime and also solve cases in and around communities like ours. There are quite a few good plug and play options available and you can always ask a neighbor for help.
On a personal note: I would like to thank our newest board member Denise Ostner for volunteering her time as the new Area 5 Director. She is an avid tennis player, long time member of the community, and will do a great job! As per usual she answered my importantly unimportant questions by saying she likes her steak medium-rare and she cooks her brisket by buying it!
Update (08/04/2021) – We had a great meeting of the minds, again, today with our two new deputies. Our new deputies are dedicated to assimilating to our priorities and communications. Most of the stop sign and speeding violations in our boundaries are committed by people who live in Memorial Northwest. I recommend avoiding that behavior… – RAA
To further the statistics on the vehical break in’s and thefts, what percentage were parked on the street, what percentage were parked in the driveway next to garage, and what percentage were parked in the garage but left unlocked?
Thank you for your questions Nancy. We do know that reasonable loss prevention was not in place. Items left in the car, doors not locked, vehicles in the street, etc. It is best to have vehicles in the garage, nothing valuable inside, and locked. Vehicles are much less likely to be broken into or stolen if loss prevention methods are taken.
Thank you very much for such a thorough and comprehensive analysis of our neighborhood. A lot of us read these and it is very reassuring to be kept up to speed about everything in our lovely neighborhood thank you for everyone involved for keeping us up to date!
Thanks so much for this response, Shawn. We have amazing neighbors, who on the whole make good decisions, and that makes our neighborhood very safe. Our neighborhood is known for being tough on crime and our neighbors look out for each other!
Your second paragraph sounds more like a quota than appropriate enforcement. High visibility often accomplishes the same results as more traffic stops. Please do not equate the number of traffic stops to the fine job of traffic control that is being done by our deputies.
Thanks for the comment, Richard. When analyzing the data and going to our team, the first thing I told them is that we don’t want to set any quota at all. We want to know the cause for the change in numbers and allowed them to tell us what is going on. They did conclude that they had a challenge because of unforeseen personnel changes and are working to correct this. I check in with them several times a week and they have self reported improvements.
“ catalytic converters (not just on Cadillacs)” made me giggle !
KC, glad you found that as funny as I do…I used to look at my Civic and say, “wish I could find one of those Cadillac converters…”