First, breaking (breaking!) right now, lots of folks have been asking about the huge police presence at the corner of 45th and Stone Way, complete with helicopters. According to Gwydion on Facebook: “I just spoke with an officer. Someone just robbed Verity Credit Union. White male, 30s, wearing all black, red shoes. On foot, may still be in the area.”
Then, over on 4th Ave NE by I-5, Brandi reports:
“Bike theft! This guy stole my sons bike from inside our fully fenced, gated yard early yesterday evening. This picture is from our neighbors security camera, like an ip camera, so he was obviously going through multiple yards. He also tried to get in to my husbands truck. If by chance you see a kids black and red schwinn lying around, please let me know.”
That’s a pretty high fidelity security cam picture. I’m memorizing his face. I do wonder what he’s doing on the phone, though…
“Hey, what’s up? Oh nothing, you know, stealing some bikes. How about you? … Uh-huh … uh-huh … No, don’t tell me, I haven’t seen that episode yet, hate spoilers. … OK … Well, look, I gotta go crush some kids’ unsullied vista of the human spirit to feed my meth habit, so can I call you back? OK, cool, later man!”
Oh, and as long we’re posting photos of thieves, West of Lenin posted to the Wallingford/Fremont Community Facebook page:
“Friends! Does anyone recognize either of the two men in this video? West of Lenin was robbed on Tuesday afternoon, May 10 . Approx 2PM. They got the laptop that we use for front of house and ticket sales. It’s a 2008 Macbook Air (1st gen)- I don’t have the serial #, but it has a distinctive UK keyboard instead of the US one. The video here shows the two men casing the building, and walking into our gallery, where one stuffs the laptop down his pants and walks out. I will update this post with the case# once the SPD gets that info to us.”
The video is pretty impressive, just over five minutes of these two guys going through the building, room by room, trying doors, opening drawers, etc.
Heading back to Wallingford, Geoffrey writes:
Last night (May 9/10) our old rope hammock was stolen off of our front porch in the 4200 block of Burke N. I would guess it happened around 2AM. There is a lot of foot traffic headed south about that time (when the bars close) but I was not in a position to observe the porch at that hour. Reported to SPD this morning. Any leads would be appreciated.
Seriously, people? A rope hammock? What is that even going to get you at the pawn shop?
If it feels like it’s getting worse around here, that’s because it is. According to the Seattle Police Department’s Crime Dashboard (powered by Fremont headquartered Tableau Software), overall crime reports in Wallingford are up pretty consistently over the past 6 months, compared to the same times last year:
Sorry, it’s bit hard to read, but if you compare the olive line (January – March 2016) to the purple line below it (Jan – March 2015), you’ll see we more than doubled the reported incidents in January, and had close to a similar rise in February and March. Likewise, comparing the purple line (2015) line to the red line (2014) from September to December, you’ll see it’s been that way for about half a year.
Nothing like June of 2014, though. Woah.
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What brand of surveillance cameras are those? The clarity of the photos is great. I wish Lowe’s had cameras as good so that when my car got broken into right at their exit door, the images their camera recorded would have been useable by the SPD.
http://www.amazon.com/Hikvision-V5-2-5-DS-2CD2232-I5-Network-Bracket/dp/B00I86TMCK
Has anyone actually had a suspect arrested or gotten property back from surveillance footage? The security camera seems to be a false sense of security–it doesn’t prevent crime, but does it at least lead to arrests?
Remember when the police found that apartment full of stolen goods? http://www.wallyhood.org/2014/10/break-in-burglary-ring/#gsc.tab=0
I’ve asked the police multiple times if they ended up returning any of those stolen goods. No response. I also asked here on Wallyhood if anyone had ever gotten any of it back. No response.
So do the police ever repatriate stolen goods, or does it all just go to auction to benefit the department?
It would lead to arrests if the police were staffed well enough to make arrests. As it is, the thief basically needs to leave the house being robbed and accidentally jump into the back seat of the police cruiser for an arrest to occur.
If there’s nothing else to identify the perp, no arrest can be made. The police cannot be staffed enough to drive around all day with a book of pictures from security cameras looking for the people in the images.
My point is that cameras will never do anything to prevent crime, and are of minimal, if any, help in solving crimes that have occurred.
But perhaps they could be staffed to drive around all day, creating a visible presence to preclude crime in the first place? Your point is that cameras don’t work. Cameras certainly do prevent crime – I think “never do anything” (two absolutes) is a bit harsh. And certainly they are of help afterward — for example, solving the 7/7 attacks in London and the attack in Brussels was aided by CCTV footage. I would be surprised if the police don’t know who the West of Lenin thieves are and that this footage will help. Are cameras the great weapon to defeat all crime? No. But to dismiss them as thoroughly ineffective is too much.
How do cameras prevent crime?
Yes, police certainly could step up patrols (which is why reporting any theft is important). Unlike cameras, that could prevent crime.
Here’s a reasonably balanced look at cameras. http://www.urban.org/urban-wire/how-surveillance-cameras-can-help-prevent-and-solve-crime
There’s also this — took a quick look but the study clearly shows a positive prevention influence for cameras. http://www.ackermansecurity.com/uploads/client/BurglarSurveyStudyFinalReport.pdf
I believe some thieves will be deterred by the presence of a camera. The camera also helps residents figure out what happened to their property.
If there’s nothing else to identify the perp, no arrest can be made. The police cannot be staffed enough to drive around with a book of pictures from security cameras looking for the people in the images.
My point is that cameras will never do anything to prevent crime, and are of minimal, if any, help in solving crimes that have occurred.
Surveillance and alarm systems are most useful to create false sense of danger for the criminals. Having these kind of videos shown by the media further help create that false sense of danger. Same as having pictures of past shoplifters posted at the counter of the shop.