West Seattle Blockwatch Captains’ Network met on Oct. 26 to discuss how technology will help revitalize blockwatches on the peninsula and met with Community Police Team officer Jonathan Kiehn to discuss his role with the Southwest Precinct.

Co-leader Deb Greer discussed the group’s effort, in conjunction with the Southwest Precinct, to create an online map of blockwatch captain locations throughout West Seattle. Their hope is that the map will be a resource for people to contact captains if they want to get involved, identify blocks where a watch is needed and connect with nearby blockwatches to work together in keeping an eye out for crime.

“Crime does not stop where your blockwatch ends,” Greer said.

Greer said the map’s progress has been slowed with the recent change in operations lieutenants at the precinct. Outgoing Lt. Norm James, who was working on the map project and is now headed to the West Precinct, will be replaced by Lt. Pierre Davis in early November. The BWCN hopes to get the project back up and running once Lt. Davis takes his post.

In addition to the map, BWCN hopes to build a database of contact information for blockwatch captains as another resource for watch collaboration and as a way for citizens interested in getting involved to get in touch with the right person.

“The big dream is to get this structured so we can revitalize this program to the level it used to be years ago … (when) it was just an assumption that people were on a blockwatch,” BWCN co-leader Deanie Schwarz said.

Schwarz said there was a time when 75 percent of the city was involved in a blockwatch and today participation sits around 32 percent.

“It is time for us to be the smart citizens that we are and take that old idea … and model it for younger folks and integrate that into their social expectations of citizenry,” Schwarz said.

Blockwatch captains are on the lookout for volunteers with technical skills that will help them attain these goals.

CPT Officer Jonathan Kiehn spoke with the blockwatch captains his role as a Community Police Team member and how a blockwatch can work with him to diminish crime.

Officer Kiehn and Officer Kevin McDaniel are the two CPT Officers for West Seattle, and Kiehn said their primary responsibility is dealing with problem areas where officers are regularly called. CPT Officers will get to know the problems and people involved in areas of chronic crime (for example an apartment complex where drug dealing is an ongoing issue) and make it their focus to resolve the issue.

Kiehn said the advantages of his role are that he has an in-depth knowledge of the issues and people involved in a crime hotspot so that other officers do not have to waste time and resources interviewing and investigating the area every time they are called.

Kiehn said a hotspot is generally defined as an area that has 15 or more calls a month.

Kiehn’s request for the blockwatch captains is that if they or anyone on their block sees a crime or suspicious activity occurring in real-time that they should call 911. Repeated calls will develop a history for the area and if the problems are deemed chronic, Kiehn will investigate.

“You know your neighborhood and you know what’s suspicious in your neighborhood. I don’t. I know what a crime is and I know how to catch bad guys. I don’t know what looks wrong in your neighborhood,” Kiehn said.

For crimes that have already occurred and are not happening in real-time (such as vandalism or graffiti), Kiehn suggested calling the non-emergency line to report the incident.

One blockwatch captain asked Officer Kiehn how a neighborhood can deal with an intimidating neighbor who has not actually committed a crime but exhibits aggressive or odd behavior that puts neighbors on edge.

“His neighbors say, ‘At some point I’m afraid he’s going to go off and I’m going to be his target,” she said.

“We need a victim, otherwise I can’t say this is a bad guy,” Kiehn said. “You gotta create history and work together, but don’t form a witch hunt because you might be wrong.”

Kiehn suggested someone in the neighborhood document the behaviors of the potentially dangerous neighbor in a log that can be presented to police. In mental health cases, the only way police can step in is if the person is having trouble taking care of themselves, at which point a mental health professional can step in to evaluate the person.

Keihn also talked extensively about 911 calls – how to place them and what happens once they are placed. That information will be presented soon in an additional story.

Deb Greer said the captains are working with SPD Crime Prevention Coordinator Benjamin Kinlow on creating a monthly workshop for people interested in starting up their own blockwatch. Currently, Kinlow can be scheduled to meet with individual blocks but the hope is he can get the information to more people at a workshop in a centralized location (most likely at the Southwest Precinct).

Greer said she is working on a survey to find out what people would like to learn at the workshops, and that it will be posted soon on the West Seattle Blockwatch Captains Network blog at http://wsblockwatchnet.wordpress.com/.