Greater West Portal Neighborhood Association

By Sarita Gardner

A neighborhood watch is based on the concept of community. Knowing and caring about your neighbors is crucial in burglary prevention. If you care you are going to be more observant and want to problem-solve. Accurate descriptions and speedy reporting of suspicious activities and people to your neighbors and police is going to be key.

Our first SFSAFE Neighborhood Watch Communication Meeting kicked off Wednesday, April 27th. We had a good turnout of about 13 volunteers for new block captains! We started by some of us sharing our own personal experiences. Richard walked in on his burglar still in the act in broad daylight and came just about face to face with him! He caught the getaway car’s plate numbers and a neighbor actually followed them by vehicle for some distance. We learned that if you find your door broken into, don’t go inside right away! Call the police and they will bring in a canine unit to sniff out any remaining bad guys. Julie’s family was robbed during the night as they were asleep in their beds! The burglars were familiar with the house and came in through the garage door. Home Depot has images captured of someone buying paints using their credit card. We found out through her experience that HD could only release info and data to police. Experiences were shared and lessons were learned.

Our facilitator, Irina Chatsova pointed out anyone can request the services of SFSAFE online at  http://sfsafe.org/request-services fill it out, press submit, review, then press confirm.

Sometime end of June we will have our second meeting with our local enforcement and a third meeting will be to learn how to work with our District Attorney representative and how to write to judges in hopes of getting criminals prosecuted. We are off to a good start! Your block captain (if you have one) is tasked with creating a Block Map and Communication Tree, so don’t be surprised if a neighbor comes knocking on your door or if you find a home made flier/ invitation, they are just trying to get to know you and help you. Because that is what it really needs to comes down to; knowing and caring about your neighbors and owning your neighborhood!

By Andrew Segal

Tuesday’s Crime Summit, organized by Supervisor Norman Yee’s Office, included Lt. Ed DelCarlo from SFPD Taraval Station, Marc Massarweh from the SF DA’s office, and Irina Chatsova, SFSAFE Program Director and Furlishous Wyatt, SFSAFE Security Services Manager. Key takeaways:

1. Lt. DelCarlo noted that there has been a 47% increase in reported vehicle burglaries year-to-date compared with last year. Since SFPD staffing and resources are in part determined by reported crime data, the increase is important and people should ALWAYS file a crime report (they can be done online – http://sanfranciscopolice.org/reports) He further urged people not to leave valuables in their cars and make sure their garage doors are closed and porch lights on during the night.
2. Marc Massarweh explained some of the difficulties in prosecuting auto burglaries in particular. In the Q&A, he generally confirmed that the DA’s office is pursuing a strategy of “bundling” multiple citations before prosecuting cases given the difficulty in winning convictions. He also cited work the DA and SFPD are doing to go after the fencing operations that provide the markets for auto burglars.
3. Irina Chatsova and Furlishous Wyatt provided excellent tips for protecting one’s self, property, and community. Among their many suggestions were “owning the street” when walking by making eye contact with people, securing home doors with quality dead bolt locks using three inch strike plate screws, and forming Neighborhood Watch groups. SF SAFE (http://sfsafe.org/) provides free home security assessments and assists in forming Neighborhood Watch groups. More tips can be found here: http://sfsafe.org/downloads.

Typically, SAFE helps facilitate Neighborhood Watch groups block-by-block. Given the scale of our problem, Irina has agreed to meet with a group of prospective Block Captains at a single meeting to simultaneously kick off the block-by-block organizing effort. If you are interested in becoming a Block Captain, please email me and I will be sure you are included.

Neighbors were vigorous in their questioning, with lots of interest in Prop 47 and its impact on property crime and interest in greater police patrols.

GWPNA and its Crime and Safety Committee (CAPS) attended the meeting and updated the group on its three key initiatives: Make West Portal a less attractive target, partner with SFPD, and get the word out. If you would like to help, please email me directly, asegal@libertyhilldevelopment.com

Several members of CAPS attended Taraval Station’s Police Captain Denise Flaherty’s Security Meeting on Wednesday night at the Ortega Branch Library. It was the first of four community meetings she will hold this year. Some key take aways:

• For our police district, there has been a 47% increase in residential burglaries and a 34% increase in auto break-ins. About half of the residential burglaries were through unlocked doors and garages!
• The DA doesn’t want to waste their time on cases the judges will dismiss, so they are setting a high bar for SFPD. Assistant DA Marc Massarweh gave an example of an 18 time offender who was released without bail by a lenient (but unnamed judge).  As a result, the DA is asking SFPD for 9 solid counts before charging an auto burglar.
• Taraval Station had lost 8 officers but since the annual crime stats and due to West Portal being identified as a ‘hotspot’ we are receiving 6 replacements today. Staffing in part is determined by the number of calls for service in the precinct. So the Captain has urged the community to always call Dispatch 553-0123 for any suspect activity no matter how small one thinks it may be. The number of calls reported will reflect the need for an increase in police force in our area.