Our latest analysis of a new repository of information created as part of citywide news site SeattleCrime.com shows some shifting Capitol Hill patterns when compared to January’s maps. Overall, the anecdotes available via the Seattle Police Department’s public reports showed the Hill to have fewer incidents and, for the most part, criminal activities were more focused in the southern and most dense part of Hill. Take the analysis with a grain of salt — we can only show you the reports SPD release. For a look at the larger trends, make sure to check out our write-up of the 2009 Capitol Hill crime totals.

All Violent Crimes
February’s patterns for crimes ranging from assault to street robbery illustrate the concentration we describe above with only a a few incidents north of Mercer. More about the street robberies below. One mis-mapped event in this dataset — the big red dot at 12th and Howell is our database getting confused about an armed robbery that happened on Howell on the other side of I5. We are continually refining the geolocation process that helps create these maps. That dot will go in the correction list. As for the underlying events that each dot represents, you can click the maps for the interactive versions. You’ll find with the violent crimes set that many are assaults and, while it’s never good when people are beating each other up, a lot of these are basic nightlife tangles.

Street Robberies
We’ve started breaking out this map separately but have some presentation refinement we need to deal with better. While it was relatively quiet for street robberies compared to where it looked like things might be headed after a flurry in late January, there was some frightening street violence not captured in this category. For one, a street robbery  that went down on February 14th at Summit and Pine is not shown in the map because the perpetrator was armed. Another violent street beating in February doesn’t make the map because the gang of thugs responsible didn’t steal anything.

All Thefts – Car prowls
This category might warrant a follow-up call with SPD. Either there was a big drop in car prowls or people stopped reporting them. Whatever the cause, here are the spots where people had their windows smashed and their gloveboxes rifled. 

Residential Burglaries
No real trends to report when it comes to the Capitol Hill area’s home burglary clusters as the map is very similar to January’s but you can get a sense of where these crimes are happening on the Hill these days. The area between 15th and 23rd below Aloha appears to be one of the more consistent clusters. We’ve just started watching these trends though so no need to invest in the rottweiler yet. One of these break-ins was the incident where this man was arrested. He faces arraignment this week.

Business Burglaries
Three of these were of the smash-glass-door -and-grab including the 12th Ave break-in we reported within spitting distance of East Precinct HQ.