Seattle Police Department launches review of how cops respond to property crimes

With car break-ins, burglaries and other property crimes soaring in Seattle, the Seattle Police Department has launched a new review of the way it responds.

Monday’s announcement follows Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat’s account of having his car broken into and police doing virtually nothing, despite his tracking the thieves on the “Find My iPhone” app.

Westneat recounts how the GPS locator led them to a parking lot where the apparent thieves had parked.

He called police several times, but said a dispatcher essentially blew him off and told him to file a report online, since no one saw the actual crime.

Even after continuing to track the suspects and calling police a third time, police still didn’t show up.

Westneat said the dispatcher actually got angry with him and told him to stop following the suspects. “Pull over immediately. You’re going to get yourselves shot,” she told him.

Westneat said the thieves were so brazen, they even began waving the iPhone at him when they realized he was following them.

He’s understandably disgusted with the police response, arguing the cops are actually allowing break-ins to become a growth industry in the city.

“Can we at least start making these thieves feel a little heat? Especially when they’re served right up for you in a silver minivan?” he wrote.

“Because I saw it with my own eyes out in that Fred Meyer parking lot: Right now, they’re just laughing at us.”

But the Seattle Police Department insists it takes the matter seriously. In an interview with KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson, spokesman Sgt. Sean Whitcomb said Chief Kathleen O’Toole has ordered the review and demanded results in two weeks.

“I would say that there’s definitely urgency,” Whitcomb said.

The review will examine all aspects of police responses to property crimes.

“That response is anywhere from the process that someone goes through when they’re reporting it to 911, to the time they might wait to the types of crimes that are eligible for online reporting,” said Whitcomb.

He refused to directly address Westneat’s assertion that police do little to combat property crime even when the suspect is easily captured.

“I’m not going to make any judgment call on this right now because right now, it’s being reviewed. Ultimately, we’re talking about a much bigger issue, which is that element of customer service that we deal with when we’re talking about what happens when someone is the victim of a property crime,” said Whitcomb.

According to Whitcomb, a priority is making people feel police do take all property crimes seriously and are following up the best they can.

“It might just be showing up and dusting for fingerprints and knowing that if we do get anything, it’ll go into the AFIS (Automated Fingerprint Identification System) computer,” said Whitcomb.

Something clearly needs to be done. As Westneat pointed out, there were, what he calls, “an astonishing” 426 smash-and-grabs reported in Seattle in the past two years. Car thefts have soared 44 percent this year over last, he wrote.

Whitcomb acknowledged the city faces a growing problem, but insisted the chief’s new focus will be an important step in dealing with it.