Capt. Steve Brown, who heads up Seattle Police Department's West Precinct, praised the concept of community policing at the Magnolia Community Club meeting on Nov. 8. As noted in earlier stories in the News, the plan calls for reducing the number of beats citywide from 64 to 51. In Magnolia, that means the existing two beats will be reduced to one on Jan. 8, Brown said.
The idea is to focus resources in areas where they are most needed, he explained, and - with the exception of auto thefts - Magnolia ranks fairly low in the number of reported crimes compared with Lower Queen Anne and especially downtown, according to the latest statistics.
That worried one community member at the meeting. "We don't see a lot of police cars driving around here," the local resident said. Brown countered by saying police resources are assigned to Magnolia, a comment echoed by Terrie Johnston, who heads up crime-prevention efforts in the West Precinct. "Your Magnolia police officers feel very territorial about Magnolia," she said.
Brown also said Community Police Teams are useful because they can identify a reoccurring problem in a neighborhood. "They will work to resolve that problem," he said.
Magnolia activist Gene Hogland, who sits on the West Precinct advisory committee, said he worries about crime in parks. Brown conceded it was an issue.
"One of the real problems we have [in parks] is transients," he said. Still, Brown downplayed the problem in Magnolia. "Discovery Park is pretty large, but it doesn't have the same problems Kinnear [Park] has," he said of a greenbelt in Lower Queen Anne where transient encampments are common.
Hogland was also worried about getting less police coverage in Magnolia when the new system is launched. The goal for police officers is to stay in their area of responsibility, Brown said.
But he couldn't guarantee that would always be possible in Magnolia. Calls to police spike on Friday and Saturday nights because of clubs, most of which are downtown, so the average 7-minute response time for police gets stretched out, according to Brown.
The city plans to hire new police officers, but another change that would help is changing the hours police spend during each of three overlapping shifts each day.
The idea is to have more police on the streets when 911 calls are at their highest, Brown says. Of course, he adds, changing shift hours would need the OK of the Seattle Police Guild.
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