FW: Announcement Dupont Public Safety Meeting to lists

The Joint Dupont Public Safety Meeting will be held Tuesday the 19th of August at 7 pm at the Metropolitan Police 3rd District Headquarters. 1620 V Street. We meet the 3rd Tuesday of each month to communicate community issues to the police and visa versa.

Below is the August Meeting Agenda:

Neighborhood Watch - We'd like to expand on the recent success of catching burglars through neighbor communications of crime problems and descriptions of criminals by getting other parts of the neighborhood to get united. Come out to discuss getting a network block captains network functioning.

Renewal of the Citizens Advisory Council and elections for

Prostitution at 15th and L

Minor crimes of graffiti, plant thefts, homeless people harassing citizens, and trash trucks coming too early are driving citizen's nuts.

Pawn Shops as stolen goods fencing operations

Drug Dealing at 14th and T

Drug dealing SW of Dupont Circle

Preventable Crime Education - Lighting

911/311 system - MPD is collecting complaints on 911 and 311 experiences

On Saturday, August 16, 2003 between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. the Third District will be displaying recovered stolen property in the community room. The property was seized in connection with the arrest of Gregory Scarborough on July 10, 2003 and includes such items as jewelry, electronics, music instruments, cameras, DVD movies and watches. If you were a victim of a reported residential burglary between December 2002 and July 9, 2003 we welcome you to attend. You must provide us with case numbers and a list describing the stolen items before you enter. For more information please contact DAVID SWINSON [invswinson@excite.com]at the Third District or via email.

FW: Reminder - Dupont Public Safety Meeting Tuesday

Dupont Public Safety List and Neighbors of Riggs Place:

The Joint Dupont Public Safety Meeting will start with getting an update
on the mini-crime spree on the 1700 and 1800 blocks of Riggs Place. The
police have been very responsive to the issue including posting a
policeman on the block nearly full-time since Friday. Having many of the
effected people in the room at the same time could help solve these
crimes.

The 6 to 10 reported crimes on these two blocks in 24 hours contrasts to
an average of slightly over one crime reported in the whole police
service area (half of Dupont) per 24 hour period. Depending on the
turnout for the crime spree issue, we may also get into a general
overview of crime in the neighborhood, the CAC, the PSA border issues,
various drug investigations, etc.

1620 V Street at 7 Tuesday.

Rob Halligan

Joint Dupont Public Safety Committee

-----Original Message-----
From: Rob Halligan (ANC 2B01 Commissioner)
[mailto:Rob.Halligan@DupontCircleANC.net]

Despite my expressed inclination to cancel the monthly Public Safety
meeting, I would like to hold it to concentrate on the issue in the
letter below. Many people are away, that room can be stifling, the CAC
decided not to meet until September, there's no follow up from meeting
with the Chief since he didn't show at the ANC meeting, and the new PSA
map reflected the changes we asked for, but a crime spree is a good
reason to share stories and get progress reports with citizen's and
police.

Hope to see you at 1620 V Street at 7 Tuesday the 15th.

Rob Halligan
319 1313

-----Original Message-----
From: Rob Halligan (ANC 2B01 Commissioner)
[mailto:Rob.Halligan@DupontCircleANC.net]
Sent: Friday, July 11, 2003 12:02 PM
To: Detective Swinson; Frank Hill; Larry McCoy
Cc: Gil Hill; Marco Santiago; Bill Glew; Bob Meehan; Carol Mitten;
Darren Bowie; Irv Morgan; Ramon Estrada; Scott Major Giese; Stuart
Dwyer; Vince Micone
Subject: Request for MPD Stakeout on 1700 block of Riggs

Commander McCoy, Lieutenant Hill, Detective Swinson:

Below is a description of crimes and suspicious character sightings on
the north side of the 1700 block of Riggs in the past 3 days.
Considering their frequency, pattern, severity, and brazenness I request
a police stakeout on this block.

Attempted break-in Tuesday - have no details, a sign was posted for a
short period describing.

2 doors getting broken in Wed. Burglars went all through the houses
stealing things. Maybe was at 2:30 pm.

3 descriptions of 3 suspicious black males. In one they knocked on a
door asking for someone who didn't live there. In the other they were
snooping. A third description had them chasing someone.

Thursday night a black male was looking in back windows.

Thursday night 3 cars were broken in to.

Friday morning the same house was broken into again.

This pattern of re-breaking into houses has been seen before. The
burglar who was arrested Thursday must not have been responsible for the
above.

If anybody in receipt of this email has more or clarifying information,
I would like to hear about it. Please make police reports or call 311. I
was in the process of canceling my monthly meeting with the 3rd district
Commander because many of the regular attendees are out of town. I think
we should have the Joint Dupont Public Safety Meeting at 3rd District
headquarters (1620 V Street NW at 7:00 pm) Tuesday the 15th with this
crime spree on the top of the agenda. Any one in receipt of this email
is welcome.

I've been trying to get more police patrols of this block for months.
(Since I live on the block, it may have seemed self-serving). The police
need crime reports and suspicious activity to justify deployment. Now
you have that.

Rob Halligan
Joint Dupont Public Safety Committee Co-Chair
202 319 1313

FW: Burglary Spree Update #2

Please write me if you don't want to receive such emails.

My experience of the past 2 weeks confirms 2 things we already knew: the DC Police can be fantastic and developing communication lines between police and citizens is invaluable. The police response to the mini-crime spree has been excellent and the coordinated communication of the leads to and from the police helped get one man arrested and 3 under surveillance. This shows that we can make a difference in our community. This also means that to get great results from the police the citizens need to work at it being involved.

Officers Ackerman, Wilcox, Flynn, and Forbes, Detectives Thompson and Greene, Lieutenant Hill and Commander McCoy were noticeably critical to this success story. There were probably many people operating behind the scenes that made the success possible. The 911/311 system even operated well. The 3rd District did their roll call on my block one day to familiarize all the officers on duty with the situation.

One man was a arrested for stealing things out of a garage. We suspect he also broke into the cars in the Riggs Place alley since he was convicted of and did jail time for breaking into a car in the same alley last year. He was released pending trial. He was subsequently arrested for violating a "Stay Away" order and will not likely be released again.

The 3 men who were breaking down doors and burglarizing houses during the day have been identified. They have been tied to over 20 similar break ins - 18 on Capital Hill, several in Adams Morgan and Columbia Heights. The detectives are still working on getting an arrest warrant.

Responses to my emails were coming in from people who had seen them posted on numerous listservs and who had had them forwarded several times. If anyone would like to be on some of several lists, please contact me. There is the Joint Dupont Public Safety Committee List, the Dupont ANC list, the DCCA Alert list and my ANC district constituent list.

We could emulate the email list that we used in my surrounding blocks in all of the police district and we'd be a lot safer. This could operate through block captains of a Neighborhood Watch. One neighbor can communicate with other neighbors on what's going on such as an increase in car break ins or doors getting broken down so that people can be on the look out. We'd hope that person would develop a relationship with the police on that beat. I got dozens of descriptions of potential burglars, correlating stories, and status reports. If someone filters through the noise and responsibly communicates good info to the police and their neighbors problems get solved.

We'll be working on setting up a Neighborhood Watch system in the Joint Dupont Public Safety meetings on the 3rd Tuesday of every month, that is, this August 19th at 7pm at the 3rd District Police headquarters at 1620 V Street.

Rob Halligan

1711 Riggs Place

319 1313