MARIJUANA AND DRIVING- The Rules of the Road

With the new marijuana law, some people may think that they will be allowed to smoke marijuana and drive. That would be wrong thinking. This is a recent interview with John Abraham of the Seattle PD Traffic Division on marijuana and driving by Ross Reynolds of KUOW:

http://kuow.org/post/officer-abraham-new-rules-road-marijuana-use

SNOHOMISH COUNTY- Sheriff John Lovick’s Comments about School Safety

The tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut has created a debate about child safety in schools and gun control. The Herald published a commentary by Snohomish County Sheriff John Lovick on Sunday January 20. Select the link below to read it:

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20130120/OPINION03/701209968/-1/OPINION#Keeping-children-safe-at-school

BELLEMONT CROSSING- Burglary

On Thursday, January 17, a family’s home was burglarized while they were shopping at Costco. The family was at Costco for only an hour. When they returned home they found that someone had taken their jewelry and all of their electronic gadgets. The burglars entered the house through a side window, apparently circumventing their alarm system.

Note: While little more detail is known about this incident it does provide some pointers:

• Usually, the rule of thumb is that most burglaries occur in the spring and summer when the weather is warmer and the days are longer. However, burglaries do happen in the winter, even with the cold weather that we have been having in the last two weeks.
• While we do not have information on how the burglars circumvented the alarm, think about the following if you have an alarm:
• Always arm your alarm system when you leave your house, even if you plan to be away for only a short time.
• When you install your alarm system, ensure that you have adequate coverage of your home. A good alarm installer can assess and what types of sensors to use and where to place them to reliably set off an alarm when an intruder enters your home.
• If you are thinking about installing an alarm system, remember:
• Get bids from 3 or more companies.
• There are two types of systems that you can use:
• A monitored alarm system through a major company that that will first verify if there is a problem (usually with a phone call to you or someone you designate) before calling the local 911 agency.
• A non-monitored alarm system that has a loud siren outside of the house that can alert neighbors. This is especially valuable if your neighbor know to call 911 if they hear the alarm.
• For more information about alarms and surveillance cameras go to the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office web site:
• http://sheriff.snoco.org/Documents/MarApr06.pdf
• http://sheriff.snoco.org/Documents/MayJun12.pdf

 

CRIME PREVENTION- Being Alert

As we go through life we usually are busy. Busy with family, work, or maybe looking forward to vacation or maybe dinner out with some friends. We often focus on ourselves or our immediate family or friends. The rest of the world becomes beyond our focus or interest.

But police often ruin things with reminders about being aware of what is going on around you, especially when it comes to crime. But, you say you don’t want to be “paranoid.” Life should be more than obsessing on the bad that can happen to you. It should be about the positive in life. And you’re right. But a little awareness can keep you out of trouble or maybe give you an advantage in being a help if you find trouble around you.

People who teach personal safety often refer to a graduated scale- states of awareness:

1.         White- is where you are totally unaware of anything around you. Professionals discourage us from being in this state as we go through the day. People in white, are those who, after being robbed or assaulted on the street, say that they never saw it coming.

2.         Yellow- is where you are aware of what is going on around you. You’re relaxed, but you look around, if you are walking your stride is confident. You notice people around you so that you can see unusual activity and then go on to the next stage. This is where the professional personal safety trainer wants you.

3.         Orange- In orange you detect a potential threat. At this point, you should start to develop a plan in your head to protect yourself.

4.         Red- In red you should be actively protecting yourself, either by fighting or by running to safety.

5.         Black- If you are in black you are so overwhelmed by events, that criminals find it easy to victimize you. You can easily go from white to black. It’s better to be in yellow where you can inform yourself and be ready for any threat.

(http://sheriff.snoco.org/Sheriff_Services/CrimePrevention/CommunityPolicingNewsletter.htm)

 

But being aware is not only for your personal safety, it is important within your community and neighborhood. This means being aware of your surroundings as you go about your day, by being alert when you are at home, but also talking to your neighbors about incidents that may have occurred when you are away from home or in parts of your neighborhood that you cannot see. Knowing when there has been a burglary, car prowl or other incident. Knowing about what is going on in your neighborhood helps you to take action to protect yourself and your property (like remembering to lock the doors to your car parked in the driveway). It also allows you to collaborate with your neighbors to figure out the source of a problem and to take action to if not remove it, at least to discourage it from repeating (kids drinking in the park, cleaning up the park to make that kind of activity less desirable to the kids).

Of course collaborating and communicating is a lot easier now than in the “old days.” Talking face to face with your neighbor is the best way in many situations. But, of course you need to be in person with that person, which can be a challenge if you want to talk to many people. With the telephone so ubiquitous by the mid-to-late 20th century, police departments frequently recommended that neighborhood watches develop “phone trees” in order to communicate vital and time sensitive information. If someone in the neighborhood has been burglarized or had their car broken into, then they could let their neighbors know what happened. Now that the internet has become a constant part of our lives with the world wide web, email, texting (SMS) through PC’s, laptops, tablet computers and even in our pockets or purses with our smartphones, communication is much easier and can be much broader.

Being alert to what is going on around you has new tools that can help your community. For example, we have talked about www.crimemapping.com which can give you information about all kinds of crime incidents that have been reported to the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office. All you have to do is enter your address and you will see what crime has occurred around you. Anyone can access this information and can even sign up for email alerts.

Everyone in your neighborhood watch may not be into checking the web site or signing up for a crime alert. If one or two people in your neighborhood do receive alerts and/or regularly check the site then they can pass the information on to the rest of the watch. This does not replace information that your neighborhood watch members can exchange among themselves where everyone can learn things about how burglars gained entry or what was taken, which can help each member focus on how they can protect themselves. www.crimemapping.com does not give a lot of detail about each incident other than date, time, general address (such as 100 block of 123 St SE), type of activity, and an incident number. But it can keep your neighbors aware of what is going on around them.

Knowing what is going on around you (the military calls it “situational awareness) can help you personally but also your neighbors to keep yourselves and your property safe, especially if you use the modern tools that we have to communicate.

BELLEMONT HEIGHTS- Suspicious Vehicle

In the late afternoon on Monday December 31, a husband and wife were leaving their house and noticed a red Jeep Wrangler circling their neighborhood. This seemed suspicious to them. They did notify their Neighborhood Watch coordinator. It is unknown if they called 911.

Note: This was a heads up move. The Jeep seemed suspicious so they let their neighbors know what was going on. Letting 911 and your neighbors know about suspicious activity can help everyone. With a good description, including a license plate number, 911 and a sheriff’s deputy can easily check to see if vehicle is stolen or the vehicle’s owner has any warrants. Keeping your neighbors informed allows them to watch out for the suspicious person or vehicle. Its little things like this that helps direct deputies to where they are needed.

LYNNWOOD- Prolific Criminal in Jail Again

Shannon Sessions, the Public Information Officer for the Lynnwood Police Department, has issued a press release concerning the recent apprehension of a convicted felon in Lynnwood. The full release is printed below. Please note her advice about opening your door to strangers at night and if you see a high police presence in your neighborhood:

A known violent offender and convicted felon was arrested in Lynnwood late Dec. 10 for investigation of Residential Burglary, Attempted Residential Burglary with Domestic Violence, Violating a no-contact order, Obstructing a Law Enforcement Officer and two counts of Malicious Mischief.

The 25-year-old Everett man was booked into the Snohomish County Jail.

Lynnwood Police responded to an apartment in the 5800 block of 204th St. SW. in Lynnwood just after 9 p.m. when a woman called 911 because her ex-boyfriend, who she had a no-contact order against, was attempting to gain entry into her home through a back window.

Police arrived on scene and found the suspect outside the front of the apartment. As soon as the suspect saw the officer he fled on foot. Containment was set up and a K9 track quickly ensued.

The suspect was tracked a couple blocks away to a condominium complex in the 5600 block of 200th St. SW. In the process of fleeing, the suspect broke fences and damaged property along the way.

Once at the condo complex on 200th, the suspect knocked on a back sliding door of an unknown and occupied unit. While engaging with the unknown woman resident who answered the door, the officers and K9 Unit rapidly approached. The suspect attempted to hide and then made a break for it inside the woman’s condo.

The suspect ran through the condo and out the front door with the Police K9 and handler trailing close behind –through the residence.

Due to the volume of containment police officers present from Lynnwood, Edmonds, Mountlake Terrace and Snohomish County Sheriff’s Department—along with the police K9 right on his track, the suspect simply had nowhere to go.

In a final attempt to evade officers, the suspect sat on a nearby front porch and tried to mix in with other bystanders in the area. Officers soon saw and recognized him and he was taken into custody without incident.

This event did get a lot of attention from neighbors and bystanders around this area.

From a Crime Prevention standpoint it’s important to be cautious about who you open your door to, especially during dark hours. Also, if there is a high presence of police in your area, be sure to lock your doors and stay inside. Lastly, if you see or hear anything suspicious in your neighborhood, don’t hesitate to call 911, you may have that missing piece police need to solve a crime.

 

ESPERANCE- Sheriff’s Office Seeks Hit-and-Run Driver

The Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office is asking for help in finding a hit-and-run driver who hit and injured a 15-year-old boy in the vicinity of 92^nd Ave W at 4:45pm on Monday in the Esperance area near Edmonds.

The boy was struck by a mirror of a passing truck. He was taken to a local hospital and released. The mirror broke off and police have it as evidence.

Sheriff’s Office detectives believe the truck was a Ford F-150 pickup with a light color, possibly gold.

If you have any information that can help detectives find this driver please call (425) 388-3845.

The Herald article: http://heraldnet.com/article/20121212/NEWS01/712129831#Police-seek-hit-and-run-driver-in-Edmonds-area