Terrie Johnston became the crime prevention coordinator for the Seattle Police Department’s North Precinct about one month ago, but she already knows when her last day will be: Dec. 31. That’s because city budget cuts are forcing the elimination of the program, which provides safety walk-throughs of homes and businesses, coordination of Block Watch captains, and a more personal touch for neighborhoods to contact SPD.

“The bad news is that we have been cut and cut and cut, and we (crime prevention coordinators) are going away on Dec. 31,” she told the Greenwood-Phinney Chamber of Commerce last Friday.

SPD’s Crime Prevention Coordinator program was created in 1973 and has received international attention. Johnston said Seattle’s CPC program was the best in the nation.

“People from other countries used to come and find out how we did it,” she said. “I’m just sad about it. I have over 1,800 block watch captains that I contact.”

Johnston has been with SPD for 30 years and has worked at every precinct except West Seattle.

All crime prevention coordinators have taken training called Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) and will work for free with businesses and homes to assess security issues. (For example, CPTED training helps identify bushes and trees that obscure sight lines in parks or around front and back doors where criminals can hide, as well as how lighting can affect safety.)

Johnston tells business owners and homeowners to frequently check windows, doors, locks, cameras and security systems.

“A lot of it is just human error,” she says of burglaries. “They run to the bank and forget to set the alarm, or they could have sworn they locked that back door.”

As a CPC, Johnston wants to make it clear that people should call 911 even if it’s not a life or death emergency. She said that if you see someone suspicious in your neighbor’s back yard, call 911 and report it. She cited a recent example of a neighbor calling 911 to report two suspicious people at her neighbor’s house, leading to the arrest of two prolific burglars.

“That would not have happened had the woman not been suspicious and called 911,” Johnston said.

She says residential burglary is one of the highest priority calls because it could be a crime in progress. “That is a big, big and very scary crime,” she said.

All 911 calls are prioritized, so Johnston said you shouldn’t worry that your call will take away resources from a more serious crime that may be happening. Officers may be sent to check out a suspicious person, but if they then get a call for an assault in progress, they will respond to that call first.

And don’t assume someone else has already called 911 when something major has happened. Having more 911 calls helps SPD know how serious it is, and you may have details others don’t.

The way you report a crime is important, she said. Be brief and to the point. For example, you might say “there are two suspicious men creeping out of my neighbor’s secluded back yard.”

If you have a complaint about police response to a 911 call, Johnston encourages you to call her and she can look up the details. For example she’ll be able to tell you that officers were on their way but then got called to something more serious, or they did stop the suspicious person a few blocks away but verified their story or credentials.

Johnston said she’s pleased about how the North End neighborhoods watch out for each other. She said the annual national Night Out against crime program on the first Tuesday of August (Aug. 2 this year) has far more participants in the north end of the city than anywhere else. She counted up the block parties that registered last year and said 787 blocks in the North Precinct had registered, compared to a combined 400 in the city’s other four precincts.

Johnston encouraged everyone to attend the North Precinct annual picnic, at 10049 College Way N., from 1-4 p.m. on Saturday, July 9. Hundreds of people attend the picnic to meet police officers (and their department horses and dogs), watch a bomb robot demonstration, tour the precinct and listen to music.

North Precinct Crime Prevention Coordinator Terrie Johnston can be reached at 206-684-7711 or terrie.johnston@seattle.gov.

A group of students from St. John Catholic School in Phinney-Greenwood participated this morning in the Law Enforcement Torch Run, to celebrate the opening of the Special Olympics of Washington Summer Games.

The students joined Seattle police officers to run along Aurora Avenue North around 9 a.m. today.

The Special Olympics Summer Games are at Joint Base Lewis-McChord this weekend.

Thanks to Sue for the photos!

Here’s a reminder that the Seattle Police Department is conducting a major traffic enforcement patrol along Aurora Avenue North today.

The extra patrol started at 6:30 this morning and will run until this evening.

Specifically the patrol is focusing on the behaviors that contribute to collisions, injuries and deaths along Aurora Avenue such as speeding, following too close, unsafe turns and lane changes, impaired driving (DUI), cell phone usage, texting and other in car distractions.

More than 50 Seattle Police Department personnel are participating, including motorcycle and squad car units, the Aggressive Driver Response Team (ADRT) and the DUI squad. Joining SPD will be six patrol units from the Washington State Patrol and three teams from the Washington Liquor Control Board. A Unified Command Center has been established at North 125th Street and Aurora Avenue North.

The April 14th patrol is part of a two year project to improve safety along Aurora Avenue North. Between April 2005 and March 2008, 1,581 collisions occurred on Aurora between the Battery Street Tunnel and North 145th Street.

Seattle Police yesterday served search warrants on the GMS Market at 10406 Greenwood Ave. N., and at GMS owners’ residence and on their vehicles. Police say that an undercover investigation led them to an extensive retail theft crime ring that allegedly shoplifted millions of dollars’ worth of items from other stores, then sold them to GMS Market’s owners for resale in the store.

From Seattle Police Department’s online blotter:

On 03/15/11, search warrants were served on the GMS Market, the GMS owners’ residence and their vehicles. The Seattle Police Property Recovery/Pawn Unit conducted an investigation into an extensive retail theft crime ring in and around the City of Seattle. Through an undercover operation in conjunction with suspect, victim, witness, and informant interviews, and with the cooperation of loss prevention officers from victim retail stores, investigators learned of an organized criminal group active in this area.

The group used thieves (boosters) to enter retail grocery and other stores to steal merchandise.
Over the past 2 years, the merchant victims reported experiencing repeated thefts of merchandise exceeding millions of dollars in value, some of which detectives were able to contribute to the GMS Market. The GMS Market, located in the Greenwood neighborhood in North Seattle is a family owned business and only family members work in the store.

It appeared that many of the thieves are individuals addicted to heroin and other illegal drugs. The owners of the GMS Market provided the thieves with requests for specific items, asking for merchandise with a shelf value of over $20 each. The owners of the GMS Market then paid cash for the stolen items, usually $1-$2 per item. Detectives conducted more than 12 undercover sales of purportedly stolen product to the owners and clerks of GMS Market. These transactions took place between December 4th, 2010, and March 10th, 2011. Detectives also learned that one of the owners of the GMS Market operated internet stores on Ebay and Amazon Marketplace.

In the course of this investigation, undercover detectives purchased “stolen” merchandise (positively identified as the merchandise sold to GMS by undercover and informants) from the GMS Market as well as from the internet stores.

Over the last two years, Safeway, QFC, Target, Fred Meyer, Top Foods and other local retail stores in the North Seattle area alone have reported losses in health and beauty items of over 1.5 million dollars. In order to combat those losses, retail stores have been forced to deploy additional loss prevention officers at these North Seattle and North King County stores.

Investigators recovered a large amount of evidence from the search warrants. After going through this evidence, investigators will request appropriate charges through the King County Prosecutors Office. Potential charges include: Leading Organized Crime, Trafficking in Stolen Property and Organized Retail Theft.

The Seattle Police Property Recovery/Pawn Unit would like to thank the King County Prosecutors Office, Safeway, QFC, Target, Fred Meyer, Top Foods and other local retail stores in North Seattle/North King County in this joint collaboration.

The Seattle Police Department’s North Precinct asked us to pass along all the emergency contact information that PhinneyRidge  and Greenwood residents might need.

• SPD’s North Precinct is located at 10049 College Way N.; 206-684-0850.
• The North Precinct’s Community Police Team’s main number is 206-684-4599. Sgt.
• Dianne Newsom can be reached at 206-684-0794 or dianne.newsom@seattle.gov.
• North Precinct’s detective, Sgt. Jeff Durden, is at 206-386-9113 or jeffrey.durden@seattle.gov.
• Officer Travis Testerman is our community police officer; he covers the area from North 50th Street to North 90 Street, from I-5 to Third Avenue Northwest. He can be reached at 206-233-3984 or travis.testerman@seattle.gov.
• Officer Scott McGlashan covers the area from North 110th Street to the Ship Canal, from Third Avenue Northwest to the Sound. He can be reached at 206-233-3733 or scott.mcglashan@seattle.gov.
• The City Attorney Liaison is at 206-684-7765.

And here’s a list of Public Safety Numbers:

• Police, fire and medical emergencies: 911
• Incidents not needing an officer to be dispatched: 206-625-5011
• North Precinct Watch Commanders, for thank yous or concerns: 206-684-0856
• Community Police Team, for chronic, ongoing problems not resolved by 911: 206-684-0794
• Suspected drug activity: 206-684-0748
• Parking Enforcement: 206-625-5011 or https://web1.seattle.gov/police/AbandonedVehicles/Present/AbandonedVehicle.aspx
• Website for crime updates and alerts: www.seattle.gov/police/precincts/North/default.htm
• Crime Statistics: http://www.seattle.gov/police/records/online/htm; http://web5.seattle.gov/mnm/policereports.aspx; http://web5.seattle.gov/mnm/incidentresponse.aspx
• Sex Offenders: http://www.sheriffalerts.com/cap
• Graffiti and illegal dumping: Seattle Public Utilities – 206-684-7587
• Streetlights burned out, intermittent or flickering: 206-684-7056
• Overgrowth, cars in yards, litter: 206-615-0808

The Seattle Police Department just launched on online map of police reports, available for anyone to see.

The Police Reports Map will show mapped crime icons based on initial police reports taken by officers when responding to incidents around the city. After the information enters the Department’s Records Management System it populates this map.

Links directly to the related police reports from the map icons will also become available. As with the existing Police Reports application announced earlier, care is taken to redact victim and other sensitive information from what is available online.

The crime reporting map is a short-term view of crime: it provides a good sense of what is reported to be going on in a certain neighborhood or the city at large at any time. It is also good for seeing patterns of types of crimes happening (such as an unusual amount of reported bike thefts in your area).

The Police Reports Map will not link to a redacted narrative of a police report on every crime. However, every icon on the map will have a related General Offense (GO) number. You may use that number to request a copy of any unavailable report.

Update: Seattle City Light reports that power to the area has been fully restored.

Earlier: Seattle Police are at the scene of a traffic accident near 3rd Ave. NW and NW 55th St. in Lower Phinney/East Ballard. Crime scene tape is up and the intersection is blocked.

Seattle Police Department Spokeswoman Renee Witt says police are waiting for Traffic Collision Investigators, who are called to the scene when there’s major damage or serious injuries.

Here’s what neighbor Milissa says happened:

From what I could tell the truck was attached to a trailer hitch up the hill about 100 feet and when they unhitched the trailer, the truck rolled down the hill and hit the pole. When the pole fell it ripped a bunch of lines out of the house across the street.

Thanks to Dave for the tip, and artman 1951 for the photo.