Wednesday night, following a disturbing series of incidents including two stabbings in Cal Anderson Park, groups, local businesses and neighbors will hold a rally and march to launch a new “block watch” initiative on Capitol Hill.

While statistics compiled by the Seattle Police Department show that crime totals increased on Capitol Hill in 2012, CHS’s analysis of the start of 2013 shows that SPD’s totals actually show crime is down in the area compared to the same period in 2012.

Here are the totals for the four East Precinct beats that cover Capitol Hill for the first three months of the year:

A major downtick in reported thefts has helped fuel the drop but fewer assaults and a flat performance for vehicle thieves rounded out the overall 10% drop compared to 2012. Burglaries — including commercial and residential break-ins, on the other hand, nearly doubled compared to the same period last year. And the much smaller total of reported robberies also showed a disturbing jump.

The breakdown by beat reveals the hotspots — and where things cooled down compared to last year:

• Burglars have been busier everywhere on the Hill but especially in the southern beats of C2 and E2
• Robbery reports in the north in C1 are pretty rare — there were zero in the first three months of 2012. There were four there in the first three months of 2013 plus an increase everywhere else but western E1.
• Thefts, covering everything from store ripoffs to stolen bikes, were down significantly in every beat but up north in residential C1. We’ll check in with East Precinct to see if there is any explanation for the drop. We’ve heard anecdotally, for example, that there has been an increase in theft related to liquor now being available in grocery stores — these numbers don’t seem to bear that out.

The totals do show, however, that overall, Capitol Hill’s first three months of 2013 were less crime-y than the same period in 2012. If it helps, take a look at the datasets the next time you feel like things are going to hell in a handbasket. The numbers say, nope — well, except for the burglary part. When the numbers for April and May are released, we’ll update and see if the story remains the same.

Source: SPD Crime Statistics

A group is planning to take to the streets of Capitol Hill Wednesday night to recruit local businesses into a new “block watch” and raise awareness of crime issues in the neighborhood:

CAPITOL HILL ANTI-CRIME/VIOLENCE MARCH & RALLY
Join Social Outreach Seattle (SOSea) for a peaceful march and rally to call for an end to violence and crime on Capitol Hill.

The CAPITOL HILL ANTI-CRIME/VIOLENCE MARCH & RALLY will also feature the launch of a neighborhood business watch program, BLOCK WATCH.

DATE: May 22
TIME: 6 – 8 p.m.
LOCATION: Seattle Central Community College (1701 Broadway)

SCHEDULE
• 6 – 6:45 P.M. GATHER AND START RALLY AT SCCC
• 6:46 – 7:30 P.M. MARCH
From SCCC onto Broadway, North on Broadway to John St.. West on E Olive Way to Melrose, South on Melrose to Pike St, West on Pike St to Plymouth Pillars Park. Closing at the Park, and disperse from there
• 7:31 – 8 p.m. END RALLY AT Plymouth Pillars Park.

As one LGTBQ group prepares for a Wednesday night march and rally to launch a new “block watch” program on Capitol Hill, someone else has taken to the utility poles of the neighborhood to spread a much different message.

“Some people dislike gays, others dislike guns,” one posted sheet reads. “We should not base our laws on personal dislikes.”

The rather large leap of an equivalency looks a little like a renewal of a national campaign from the mid-2000s that got some attention on Capitol Hill known as the Pink Pistols. We talked to one person familiar with the group from the days when Pink Pistols “first fired up” who says it is still active in the area but he is not sure if this is a case of old members reviving their efforts or a younger generation of gun activists picking up the torch. We have not yet heard back from our effort to reach a representative for the group. Continue reading →

A Capitol Hill pizza delivery driver reported having his phone taken from him at gunpoint after he tried to chase down a woman who he found prowling his car during a middle-of-the-night delivery on Belmont Ave E.

According to the report on the Saturday morning incident, the driver said he was making a delivery after leaving his locked car in the 300 block of Belmont Ave E around 2:30 AM when he was returning to the vehicle and saw the driver-side door open and a woman rifling through the vehicle. The driver told police he yelled at the woman and began chasing her as she made a run for it.

The driver said he quickly caught the woman and was holding onto her when two men armed with a pistol and a bike chain arrived and yelled at him to let the woman go. According to the driver, he tried to make a phone call but one man pointed the gun at him as the other was swinging something that appeared to be a bicycle chain.

The driver said the men and woman then took his phone and fled from the scene “in all directions,” according to the report. The driver returned to his restaurant and called police.  A search of the area did not produce any of the suspects.