Our North End Crime Prevention Coordinator, Diane Horswill, is retiring mid-March after 36 years in law enforcement. She started out as a Community Police officer, then taught personal safety for ten years, and for the last 10+ years was in crime prevention. She’s been Pinehurst’s go-to person for home security audits; block watchs; talks on crime prevention; Seattle Night Out. She’s attended Pinehurstfest, given advice on situations we’ve encountered in our neighborhood, and reported every month at the North Precinct Advisory Council.
Diane’s experience and willingness to help has been invaluable to me as I’ve blogged on crime prevention. I will miss her, and Pinehurst will be losing a valuable resource. If you wish to thank her for her service, please feel free to contact her at 206-684-7711 or diane.horswill@seattle.gov. But hurry – I think she will be gone by the middle of March.
Budget cuts are having a big effect on the Police Department. Our other North End Crime Prevention officer, the one for west of I5, retired a few months ago, leaving Diane the only one in the North Precinct, and one of only three Crime Prevention Coordinators in the city. This program is essentially eliminated. It is a big loss for Seattle.
In the future, our crime prevention issues can be directed to the head of the Community Police Team, Sgt. Dianne Newsom at 206-684-0794 or dianne.newsom@seattle.gov. So our direction is clear; we should start developing a relationship with the Community Police Team officers. We’ll try to get one or more of them to attend our next community council meeting.
