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News
Updates
Hundreds of New Laws Take Effect in Washington State
Vehicle Survey - Did You Pass?
Spokane Police Department Neighborhood Policing Plan
Spokane
County Public Jail Roster is Available to the Public
Hundreds of New Laws Take Effect in Washington State
The new Gang/Graffiti
law
An effort to help local enforcement
agencies in preventing and combating street crime also takes
effect. The measure authorizes the Washington Association of
Sheriffs and Police Chiefs to provide grants to local law
enforcement for combating street gang activity and dealing with
"tagging" and other graffiti.
The new law creates a gang database
to help track gang activity statewide. It makes it a crime for
adults who involve juveniles in a felony offense and adds extra
jail time for gang-related crime.
It also makes gang tagging and
graffiti a crime and allows property owners to recover civil
penalties and costs, allows the Office of Crime Victims
Advocates to set up a program to help witnesses in gang trials,
and directs the Department of Corrections to study and recommend
"best practices" for dealing with gangs and recruitment behind
bars.
Click here to check
out a few of the 280 new laws taking effect Thursday at
midnight.
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Vehicle Survey - Did You Pass?
What did you leave laying in your
car's front or back seat?
This
morning when you arrived at work or school, parked and
locked your vehicle what did you leave laying on the front or back seat of your
vehicle? Riverpoint Campus Security in Spokane, Washington
recently surveyed over 700 vehicles that were parked in the parking lots
throughout campus and the following list is what they found just by looking
through the windows of the vehicles:
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60 vehicles contained
laptop computers, I-pods, digital cameras, PDAs, video cameras
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131 vehicles contained
personal mail, textbooks, school supplies, magazines
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82 vehicles contained CDs,
DVDs, thumb-drives
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289 vehicles contained
wallets, purses, backpacks, currency, clothes, garage door openers
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170 vehicles nothing was
found
Most vehicle prowls occur
because items are left in plain view for the thief to see and the items can be
easily accessed. The safest way to protect your vehicle and your belongings is
to hide these items in places that cannot be seen by the prowler. During this
holiday season when you are shopping on your lunch hour place your purchased
items in your trunk before returning to campus.
If you should witness a
vehicle prowl in progress: DO NOT CONFRONT
THE PROWLER!
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Call 911 and report the
prowl to the police.
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If it is safe to do so,
get a good description of the prowler
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Race
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Height
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Weight
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Build
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Clothing (hat, shirt
color and fit, pants color and fit, gloves, shoes)
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Items that would make
him stand out
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Direction of travel
Do not leave anything in your
vehicle that you do not want stolen if it should get prowled. Remember to
secure your vehicle by rolling up windows, locking all doors, trunks, hatches,
bed-mounted tool boxes, and canopies.
Cars are not the only victims
of theft. Bicycles are stolen as well.
Citizens can register their bike with
their nearest C.O.P.S. substation. They will put a
numbered sticker on the bike for identification purposes.
Click here to find your
substation.
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Spokane
Police Department Neighborhood Policing Plan
Putting police
officers in your area on a permanent basis.
Patrol officers in the Spokane Police Department are dedicated to their
community and strive to exceed the expectations of
Spokane’s citizens through their professionalism. Responding
to citizen’s calls to 911 is a priority, but officers
also conduct proactive patrols, focusing attention on problems identified by
other patrol officers, Neighborhood Resource Officers (NRO), Crime
Analysis, or community members.
However, coordinating these proactive
efforts to be truly effective in resolving neighborhood problems is
difficult due to limited resources. Also problematic is the ability for
officers to work directly with community members to
engage in the problem-solving process together. Officers are currently assigned
to either North or South Spokane, both of which
encompass large geographical areas. Officers are at a disadvantage when it
comes to building partnerships when they are dispatched to calls covering
these vast areas of the city.
To address these issues, The Spokane
Police Department has designed a Neighborhood Policing Plan.
Click here
for more information.
To
obtain a copy of the SPD Neighborhood Policing Plan,
visit your local C.O.P.S. substation.
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Public Now Has Access to the Spokane
County Jail Roster
Finding someone in the Spokane County Jail is now a whole lot
easier. Thanks to a new website at
www.spokanesheriff.org/jail/roster/default.aspx
This website was started as a weigh to
reduce the number of calls the jail staff receive every day.
This site lists inmates,
crime committed, release dates, and if there is a bond. With a click
of the mouse, you can view up to 1400 serious to less serious criminal
profiles learning about them from race, gender, age, to the crime they
committed. This site provides just another way to learn who your
neighbors might be. This list includes inmates at the Spokane County
Jail, Geiger Corrections Facility, and those that are on electronic home
monitoring.
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If you'd
like to become a subscriber (free of charge) with our E-NET resource, send us a
message at the email
addresses listed below. This service
provides citizens on the north and south sides of Spokane with updated
information about crime in their neighborhoods.
copsse@spokanepolice.org
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