A Message From SPD North Precinct Captain Eric Sano

A Message from the North Precinct Eric Sano Captain:

To all North Precinct residents, business owners and workers, I hope this report finds you all well during the City’s COVID-19 pandemic response. In all of my years, I have never experienced anything like this (and I’ve been around almost 60 years!). We are truly in unprecedented times, with unprecedented and extraordinary mandates put upon all of us. Many of you may be feeling anxious and wondering if we’ll ever get back to normal. Well, if there’s one thing that has withstood the test of time, it has been the resilience of our great community members. We will get through this together. Even now, our State is leading the way in flattening the curve. Please continue to practice social distancing and strict personal hygiene as we forge on.

As I stated last month, the Seattle Police Department continues to patrol our streets and respond to calls as we have always done. While we are continuing to encourage our citizens to utilize our online reporting, CopLogic (https://www.seattle.gov/police/need-help/online-reporting ), or telephone reporting to minimize face-to-face contact, that doesn’t mean you are not to call 9-1-1 if you believe a crime is occurring, about to occur or has occurred. We are still responding to priority calls or other calls for service. We are still getting dispatched to calls all over the North Precinct.

Our new Community Police Team (CPT) Sergeant is Cory Simmons, who started on April 1st. Sgt. Simmons has 21 years of experience with SPD, with the bulk of his time in Patrol in the West Precinct. He spent the last 5 years a supervisor on First Watch in Lincoln Sector. He was my choice to head CPT and I know he’ll do a great job.

Speaking of the CPT, they continue to work their regular shifts and continue to do their regularly assigned duties. In addition, I have tasked them with keeping an eye on our various encampments and working with the Nav Team to mitigate many of the issues that are arising out of them. Please understand that, since the Governor’s Stay-at-Home order, the City’s response to homelessness, encampments and RV’s has been amended. There is currently a hold on 72-hour parking complaints and camp removals have been suspended. In the interim, we are working with the Human Services Department, Public Health and other City agencies to do some clean-up and mitigate health concerns as well as educating our various homeless communities on social distancing and hygiene.

CPT Officers are continuing to monitor the situation at Ballard Commons Park and Lake City Mini Park, in particular, due to some of the criminality issues that are popping up.

The Community Police Team Officers are also assigned, along with my bicycles, to monitor the park closures imposed by the Mayor.

Although the University Street Fair has been canceled, we do not know the status of our other annual events (Fremont Fair, Solstice Parade, Greenwood Car show, July 4th Celebrations at Gasworks, Ballard Seafood  Fest, etc.) When we receive updates from the Special Events Committee, we’ll let you all know.

So, let’s discuss crime since I know that’s part of what we discuss at NPAC. After three and a half months, we’re down 11% in crime and my only plus category is auto thefts. Just a reminder:  many of you may be at home and not driven your car in awhile. Please check to make sure it’s still where you left it. Our officers have stopped many cars that later turned out to be unreported stolens.

So, during this last month that the Stay-at-Home order was imposed, the good news is that our calls for service are down almost 20% and our on-views (officer initiated activity) are up 18%! We are seeing a huge increase in Directed Patrols (+408%) and Premise Checks (+91%) as we have told our entire precinct personnel to focus on our businesses districts and businesses that are closed.

However, in the last 28-days, our calls for prowlers and burglaries are both up, despite a number of you being at home. This is a reminder to you: as the weather starts getting nicer, the inclination is to keep doors and windows open. Unless you can monitor those points of entry, don’t do that! Also, for those of you that live in secure apartment buildings, be cognizant of people following you in. Unless you know, for a fact, that they live there…keep them out. We are having a number of package thefts from supposedly secure buildings, where the mailboxes are in the lobby area. Lastly, for those of you that have secure parking garages, be cognizant of people following you in there. We’ve had an uptick in car prowls in supposed secure parking garages. Stay vigilant, be smart but stay safe. If you see something suspicious, call 9-1-1 right away. We’ll determine if someone belongs in a secure location or not.

Again, stay home unless you have to go to the doctor, the pharmacy or the store. Take care of one another and know we’re going to get through this.