On average, there’s a car stolen every other day on Capitol Hill. We’ve got a map showing the location of those thefts. Next time somebody reports a boosted Acura, SPD will take a report. And Tweet it.
Adding to the things on the Internet you can read when you are really, really bored, the Seattle Police Department has begun to post details of every stolen car in Seattle to http://twitter.com/getyourcarback
If you thought http://twitter.com/jseattle was a hoot, wait until you see updates like these:
The feed is amusing for the many Hondas that are stolen and the occasional gem like the Caprice, above, or the Geo Prizm that rolled through the feed on its first day of activity. As quite a few of Seattle Twitterati noted, stealing a Prizm is #fail. We’ll be interested to see somebody aggregate these reports at some point to find out what cars are the most popular theft targets in the city.
While we’ve yet to see the utility of the Twitter approach to crime fighting, auto theft on the Hill is a daily — or really, an every other day — problem. Here’s a map of the Hill showing the approximate locations of the last 90 days of reported auto thefts to SPD. Some notable clusters include Republican near 15th and the lower East Olive Way area.
Here are details on the new Twitter program from SPD.
This year through October, 3,011 cars have been stolen in the City of Seattle. That is an average of 9.9 a day and up from 8.46 cars per day during the same period a year ago. While Seattle certainly isn’t the stolen car capital of the United States – Laredo, TX has that distinction* – the number of auto thefts and the fact that they have increased has kept auto theft prevention a priority.
Effective today, the Seattle Police Department will begin to tweet stolen car information in the hopes that that victims of auto theft will be able to get their cars back sooner and to let thieves know that their stolen rides just got hotter.
The protocols for tweeting auto theft are simple. When a car is reported stolen in Seattle, employees in the Seattle Police 911 Center will tweet the color, year, make, model, body style and license plate of the stolen car. Twitter followers who spot a car that has been tweeted as stolen on “Get your car back” should call 911. Citizens are directed not to make contact when coming into contact with a previously tweeted stolen car and any potential occupants. All 911 calls will be screened to ensure that the car information is correctly matched and to verify that the car has not been returned to its rightful owner. If the car is still listed as stolen, the information will be broadcast so that officers can respond to the area. Stolen cars that have been recovered will not be tweeted – in other words, leave the sorting of what is stolen and what is not to the experts at 911.
Chief Diaz says “I believe that this program will integrate seamlessly into our strategy to prevent and reduce auto theft in Seattle. It will also serve to increase public awareness on the subject.”
It’s been awhile since we had an update on East Precinct crime as holidays and busy neighborhood blog schedules have conspired to keep this reporter and the precinct brass apart. No longer. Sweet reunion. Thursday night, we’ll be in attendance along with community members for an opportunity to learn about the latest updates in crime prevention in our neighborhoods and to hear what other community members have on their minds in regards to keeping the streets safe. Also on the agenda, a rep from Rebuilding Seattle Together will be on hand to talk about their services helping homeowners do important repairs to improve efficiency and safety. You can learn more on http://www.rtseattle.org/
If you can’t make the meeting, let us know in comments if you have anything on your mind and we’ll try to ask about it at the meeting.
East Precinct Crime Prevention Coalition
Thursday, December 9th, 2010
6:00 PM – 7:30 PM
Seattle Vocational Institute, Room 401Agenda:
Margie Thirlby, Rebuilding Together Seattle
Community Concerns
Precinct Updates
