A new face has been appearing at local community meetings over the last six months. Young, bright and often flanked by Lieutenants from the Southwest Precinct she can usually be caught in the back or along the wall typing furiously into her laptop as the discussions proceed.

This “new kid on the block” is Jennifer Burbridge, 23, a research analyst from Seattle University on assignment for a project being overseen by Chief of Police Kathleen O’Toole.

Courtesy of a two year grant from the Seattle Police Department Burbridge is one of five student analysts stationed in each precinct across the city. As she likes to say “there’s one of me in each of the five precincts”.

Her project concerns the Micro Community Policing Plans and…well, maybe it is better explained by Burbridge herself.

“The Micro Community Policing plans are basically that within each precinct they’ve been divided into “micro communities”. So for West Seattle a few examples are Alki, Delridge, South Park, Westwood, and Roxhill Arbor Heights, and each “micro community” has their own specific policing plan. So, the community is helped to identify three to five main crime concerns. Some of those could be car prowls or traffic issues or ferry traffic down in Fauntleroy, that type of thing. And then the police have come up with specific actions and strategies to address those specific concerns…part of my job is to evaluate how they were implemented,” she explained.

Beginning her project in January Burbridge, who is pursuing her Masters in Criminal Justice, is scheduled to continue her work with the precinct until next June, at which point she will submit an overview of the results to Chief O’Toole and her professors.

Though Burbridge does not live in West Seattle (she currently resides in Lynwood with her husband, an assignment editor at King 5) she has a connection to the area thanks to her parents; her mother worked at a roofing company on West Marginal and her father is a seafood wholesaler. Having spent many summers hanging out on Alki and shopping at Westwood Village she came to the area with a great familiarity.

Her research, along with that of her counterparts, will delve not only into how the department has done assessing these crime trends but also how the community has responded to their efforts. This aspect of her project will require Burbridge to attend as many local meetings as she can and ingrain herself in the community as something of a liaison for the duration of her research.

This is no small feat considering that during any given month there are between 15 and 17 scheduled community meetings in the West Seattle area alone.

“I’m a student as well so I’m trying to balance that and meeting with my Lieutenants and Captain as much as possible,” explained Burbridge of the workload. Recently she joined the neighborhood social network site Nextdoor.com and has been attempting to keep a pulse on local happenings through social media.

Not all of her research has been confined to a computer screen though. Along with attending meetings she has also joined officers for numerous “ride alongs” and taken notes on what she’s seen.

“I was a little disappointed to see how much action happens in Westwood Village to be honest. I spend quite a bit of time here on my lunch breaks, and it’s pretty close to the precinct so I’ll come down here and have coffee or grab lunch and it was a little scary to see how much activity is down here,” she said of her experiences. Car prowls and street robberies have been especially prevalent in the area in recent months.

She has also taken note of the effectiveness of the bike patrol officers, a program that was begun by former Captain Steve Wilske and is being continued by our current Captain Pierre Davis. “It’s really nice to see them out on Alki. I think as a community it’s very important to see your police officers and have them be approachable,” she says of the program. As she explained the “traffic” of people on Alki during the summer ups the crime trends along the beach until about December and these bike patrols work to keep officers visible and accessible during the warmer months.

These experiences seem to have already had an effect on Burbridge as well. When asked what her personal goal at the end of her research is she explained how things have changed for her.

“I always wanted to go into probation or parole; I wanted to do kind of the “social work” side of criminal justice. But after working with the precinct and working with so many great officers I actually think I want to go into law enforcement now… I think I would like to be a community police team officer,” she said.

When asked if she would like to work in the S.W. Precinct she seemed to be open to the prospect.

“Maybe, who knows, I have a year left in my program so hopefully the connections that I’ve made at the precinct will help me in the future to reach my goals and find a place that fits.”

For the end of the month Burbridge has scheduled five focus groups at the S.W. Precinct (2300 SW Webster Street) to get a baseline overview of the community for comparison when her research is done. The dates and times are as follows:

• Wednesday July 22nd: Alki community (6-7pm) at SW precinct
• Thursday July 23rd: Admiral community (6:30-7:30pm) at SW precinct
• Monday July 27th: South Park community (6-7pm) at SW precinct
• Tuesday July 28th: Block Watch Captains of West Seattle (6:30-7:30pm) at SW precinct
• Thursday July 30th: Westwood/Roxhill/Arbor Heights communities (6:30-7:30pm) at SW precinct

She can also be found on Nextdoor.com or contacted by email at Jennifer.Burbridge@seattle.gov