Are the Seattle PD really this bad? (Woodland: 2014, insurance)

[Andy Patrizio]

Police allow car break-ins to become a Seattle growth industry | Local News | The Seattle Times

What I learned last weekend: If your car gets broken into, there’s probably no point in calling the police because they won’t do anything.

This turns out to be true even if you direct police to the thieves’ van, with the perpetrators sitting in it holding your stolen stuff in plain view. The police will tell you to forget it, and call your insurance instead.

Last weekend I was at my son’s soccer game at Woodland Park in Seattle. It was pouring, so we foolishly left a purse in the car. Someone smashed the driver’s side window and snatched the purse.

Because nobody saw the crime, the police told us just to file a report online.

When I got home, my kids, savvier navigators of the modern world than I am, had already tracked the thieves down using the GPS locator of an iPhone inside the stolen purse.

“They’re at a 7-Eleven on Aurora,” my daughter announced triumphantly.

So it was that last Saturday night I found myself slouched in a car in a parking lot on Aurora, eyeing my fellow Seattleites through the fogged windows. Which one of you stole my stuff? I figured there’d be clues, like a rundown car or someone acting shifty. But nobody looked like thieves. After a while, everybody did.

When the silver minivan parked next to us drove off, we could see our iPhone moving down the street on the Find My iPhone app. So we followed it to another parking lot, and again called the police.

We reported the make and model, the license plate and the location. But the dispatcher was dismissive. Go home and file an insurance claim, she said.

[kaday]

Originally Posted by Andy Patrizio

Police allow car break-ins to become a Seattle growth industry | Local News | The Seattle Times

What I learned last weekend: If your car gets broken into, there’s probably no point in calling the police because they won’t do anything.

This turns out to be true even if you direct police to the thieves’ van, with the perpetrators sitting in it holding your stolen stuff in plain view. The police will tell you to forget it, and call your insurance instead.

Last weekend I was at my son’s soccer game at Woodland Park in Seattle. It was pouring, so we foolishly left a purse in the car. Someone smashed the driver’s side window and snatched the purse.

Because nobody saw the crime, the police told us just to file a report online.

When I got home, my kids, savvier navigators of the modern world than I am, had already tracked the thieves down using the GPS locator of an iPhone inside the stolen purse.

“They’re at a 7-Eleven on Aurora,” my daughter announced triumphantly.

So it was that last Saturday night I found myself slouched in a car in a parking lot on Aurora, eyeing my fellow Seattleites through the fogged windows. Which one of you stole my stuff? I figured there’d be clues, like a rundown car or someone acting shifty. But nobody looked like thieves. After a while, everybody did.

When the silver minivan parked next to us drove off, we could see our iPhone moving down the street on the Find My iPhone app. So we followed it to another parking lot, and again called the police.

We reported the make and model, the license plate and the location. But the dispatcher was dismissive. Go home and file an insurance claim, she said.

The car prowls in my neighborhood are so bad. We have had prowls night after night after night. Every neighbor files a report. Its open season for car prowlers in Seattle. We are having talks about hiring private security. The police do nothing. They say they will increase patrols. We run our security camera every night. It sends an e-mail every time a car drives by or there is some activity like a dog walker or jogger or newspaper guy.We have caught prowlers in the act but we have never seen a police car drive by.

[Adrian71]

There was a post similar to this not long ago. It's not just Seattle PD. I read a story not long ago about a guy in L.A. who had his iPad stolen from his car. He was able to trace it to where the thieves took it and called LAPD. They told him they didn't have time to look into it, and the only thing he ever got from the cops was a letter offering him a special police rate on "The Club" for his car.

We pay the cops' salaries to fight crime and keep us safe. It's inexcusable that they won't help in situations like this. Maybe if they stopped wasting so much time focusing on generating revenue (i.e., checkpoints, speed traps, seat-belt tickets, SWAT raids over petty and victimless crimes), they could do what they're actually supposed to do.

[MissAlexRZ]

A fair amount of the time, the police do call me back or e-mail me back if I try to report something. I even get ahold of them sometimes. There are times where I'm not sure if they took care of the problem. They have even solved it sometimes. I can't honestly say if it's "that bad". My suggestion to you would be to file the insurance claim, and if that doesn't work, call the non-emergency number back or e-mail them. If you would like, maybe send an e-mail with your complaints.

[kaday]

Originally Posted by MissAlexRZ

A fair amount of the time, the police do call me back or e-mail me back if I try to report something. I even get ahold of them sometimes. There are times where I'm not sure if they took care of the problem. They have even solved it sometimes. I can't honestly say if it's "that bad". My suggestion to you would be to file the insurance claim, and if that doesn't work, call the non-emergency number back or e-mail them. If you would like, maybe send an e-mail with your complaints.

We (over 25 households) have been as persistent as humanly possible. Sometimes things don't get stolen...because nobody really leaves anything of value anymore. But when someone comes on to your property up your driveway when your kids are sleeping a few feet away to rifle through your car it kind of pisses you off.

[kaday]

Here is an article from The Queen Anne View. Note is says car prowls in Seattle are up 44% this year. I'd say we really have a problem that needs to be addressed.

Queen Anne ViewThe Seattle Times covers the frustrating problem of car prowls | Queen Anne View

[angelenogirl]

Are there any statistically significant issues they are addressing? I see threads about poor police response times, car prowls, aggressive homeless, shocking leaked memos. Can anyone point to a large problem that's been resolved, or is in the process of receiving substantive attention? Not trying to be unfair to the police, but I've never read one good thing about SPD.

[limeyx]

I foolishly left a GPS in my car in Downtown Seattle a couple of years back and someone smashed the window and made off with it.

In this case the police actually did come, and got a statement from me and the garage manager.
The thief had actually left their cell phone in my passenger seat !!!!
The cop took the phone into evidence, but apparently that wasn't enough as I never heard another peep out of it ...

Thankfully insurance covered it all including GPS except for a $100 deductible but still ... I should have kept the phone and done my own investigation !

[peequi]

Get ready folks, it starts with petty car break ins, then they take the whole car, then they start breaking into houses, then it gets really fun. Crime breeds more crime because the criminals keep getting rewarded. Its economics.

[wutitiz]

Yes SPD is this bad. This is a longstanding problem. When I was a crime victim in Seattle about 12 years ago, I had to threaten to go to media to get SPD's attention. Check out this story from several years ago.
Car thief blamed for police death in Seattle crash | Local & Regional | Seattle News, Weather, Sports, Breaking News | KOMO News

Or this one from several weeks ago:

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/W...279366722.html

SPD is worthless. It's a make-work jobs program and nothing more.