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Pinehurst Pocket Park Work Party 4/8/2023

Pinehurst Pocket Park Work Party

9:30-11:30 am, Saturday, April 8, 2023

Please come on out if you want to help with the annual sprucing up of the PPP! A couple hours of work make a big difference in the appearance of our local park. The pocket park is at the corner of 19th Ave NE & NE 117th St.

We’ll spend some time weeding and then spread  fresh bark mulch. Bring your favorite weeding tool and a bucket. A pitchfork and wheelbarrow could also come in handy.

All are welcome, see you there!

Garth Ferber

February’s guest speaker at North Precinct Advisory Council was Leesa Manion, King County Prosecuting Attorney. Her office, KCPAO, prosecutes mostly felony crimes for Seattle, whereas the City Attorneys Office prosecutes misdemeanors. She has created some new units in the office.
First is a new economic crimes and wage theft division focused on organized retail theft, wage theft and other economic crimes like ID theft, insurance theft. Organized retail theft (ORT) is a big problem for businesses right now.
To be timelier and more deliberate in how sexual assault and sexual violence are handled, there is a new division focused on prosecuting and preventing gender-based violence that will have separate assault units for child victims and adult victims. It will use a trauma-informed, victim approach.
A new felony traffic unit in the criminal division focuses on prosecuting serious felony traffic cases, given the seriousness of vehicular homicide and vehicular assault cases and their devastating impacts on victims and their survivors.
KCPAO will set up a new gun violence-prevention unit to prosecute people creating the “most harm,” and will also analyze data to identify people close to gun violence and connect them with community-based resources. This will be aided by centralizing the data analysts, to improve analysis.
KCPAO has a backlog of 4000 charged cases. Covid funds allowed the office to hire more employees to deal with it, but the funding ends in 2024.
Our precinct captain position is vacant, so Acting Captain Joe Osborne gave the captain’s report. Comparing year-to-date crime statistics when only January tells the tale is not useful for trends, so I won’t list them. He did say we are still understaffed and will be for at least a year as new recruits are trained.
When a meeting participant opined that the crime dashboard probably greatly underrepresents actual crime because people, in frustration, do not bother to report it, Osborne reviewed reporting crimes. The 911 operation is no longer in SPD, and due to attrition, that department has stopped answering the non-emergency line for now. So always call 911 and let the operators determine how to triage the situation.
BTW, only the 911 line automatically displays your address and phone number to the operator. You can report after-the-fact crimes by calling 911. They will take the information and create the report; an officer is not required to be on site to take a report, as it used to be in years past. Or, depending on the nature of the crime, you can report it on-line at https://www.seattle.gov/police/need-help/online-reporting. Of course, if the crime is currently occurring, 911 will do its best to deploy an officer right away.

SPD Solicits Automated 911 Response Feedback

SPD is starting a new effort to solicit feedback to improve 911 response. People who dial 911 in Seattle will notice a few changes.
Beginning January 26, 2023, SPD will send fully automated follow-up text messages to many crime victims and 911 callers. Once the 911 emergency has passed, the system will solicit feedback about the caller’s experience with SPD to improve services to the community.
SPD is notifying community members about these changes so 911 callers will know the automated follow-up texts and emails are a legitimate attempt to gather feedback. They are not spam. It is the SPD’s hope that people will respond to the survey, and guide improvements to the City of Seattle’s emergency response system.
I couldn’t find examples of the messages that were very readable, but they will look something like these.

Poll Results To-date on Question of This Blog Continuing

December 27, we emailed a special Pinehurst Seattle Blog digest containing only one blog post, a poll asking the 299 neighbors on the blog’s email list to comment on the blog post if they wanted the blog to continue operating. To date 15 out of the 299 commented their interest in having the blog continue.

If you haven’t responded on that post, and wish to, scroll back to the 12/27/2022 post and comment. But so far, it isn’t looking like there’s much interest.

2023 Sock Drive Collection Locations

Here’s the scoop on our sock drive –

Zyberschtein’s Deli will take socks now through Feb 19. The hours are 8am – 3pm.

The bin at Victory Heights will be available starting January 29.

Please help us give a nice big bunch of NEW socks to our local service agencies!

Seattle Hazard Explorer

Check out the website Seattle Hazard Explorer , where you can type in your address to see what potential hazards you live near. Pinehurst doesn’t seem to have many hazards, thank goodness!

Below is a map of Seattle with hazards I chose from the layers box at right. It’s interactive, so as you check a box, colors appear on the map, so you know what hazard they are showing.

Get Critical Emergency Information Via Radio

Where to tune your radio to get critical information in case of a major disaster – KIRO-710 AM serves as a Primary Entry Point (PEP) station for FEMA’s National Public Warning System (NPWS). It provides critical information to the public before, during and after incidents and disasters.
In a national worst-case scenario, KIRO-AM 710 would broadcast a message from the President or other national authorities within 10 minutes. Via FEMA’s Emergency Alert System, other radio stations in the Seattle area would begin re-broadcasting the information coming from KIRO and its news staff. These include 97.3 FM, 97.7 FM, 94.4 FM and 1000 AM.
Local authorities, such as the King County Office of Emergency Management, may also disseminate life-saving information by way of the facilities installed at the KIRO tower site, which have backup communications equipment and power generators, and are specially designed and hardened to withstand various natural disasters and acts of terrorism.

North Precinct Advisory Council Meeting – Jan 4, 2023

At tonight’s North Precinct Advisory Council meeting, we learned that our two new Crime Prevention Coordinators have split up the precinct. Sarah Lawson (sarah.lawson@seattle.gov, 206-612-0320) is working the precinct east of I-5. We can contact her to ask about general crime prevention tips, schedule a home security assessment, request her presence at a community meeting and to discuss ongoing crime concerns in the neighborhood.
Tonight the CPCs mentioned that the SPD non-emergency telephone number isn’t always staffed due to personnel issues, so it’s best to call 911 and let the dispatcher figure out your call’s priority.
The CPCs also reviewed tips for discouraging car prowls. Car prowls are still a big problem. 1 – don’t leave stuff in the car where it can be seen; 2 – if you have a garage door opener in the car, take it with you when you leave the car, so if your car IS broken into, the opener can’t be stolen and used later to get into your house; 3 – try to park in well-lit, busy, monitored areas; 4 – don’t leave your car running when you’re not in it so someone cannot jump in and drive it away.
The precinct captain, Kevin Grossman, retired, so Lt Joseph Osborne is acting captain for the time being. He said that Parking Enforcement Division is back in SPD starting today, following City Council’s decision to move it back from its short stay in the Transportation Department.
Meagan Westphal, the City Attorneys Office liaison with North Precinct, laid out the CAO’s 2023 priorities: 1 – focus more on misdemeanor competency and mental health treatment. Felonies have gotten the most attention for this; 2 – focus on the rights of victims of crime, make CAO more victim-centered; 3 – focus on human trafficking. HT is a felony handled by King County, but CAO can employ some tools and procedures to help mitigate, like going after buyers of sex; 4 – focus on building bridges and connections in city government, break down the silos and work together more; 5 – promote data transparency, collect data both to make more informed decisions and for public to learn what’s going on.

KCVP Opens Office at Northgate

Good news for local veterans – the King County Veterans Program (KCVP) – which works with partners across the region to provide financial. housing, employment and other supportive services to veterans, servicemembers and their families in KC – recently opened an office in Northgate: 9725 3rd Ave NE, Suite 300. KCVP staff can be reached Monday – Friday 8:30 am – 4:30 pm. See more info here: https://kingcounty.gov/…/veteran…/programs-services.aspx
This info is from our KC councilperson Rod Dembowski’s newsletter.

2023 New Sock Drive: January 29 – February 19

Plan ahead for our sock drive! Collection locations will be announced later. If you have an idea for where to put them, let us know at Nancy@PinehurstSeattle.org!