Bulletin Board
Submit your contributions to the bulletin board via email by sending to: info@missionhillstowncouncil.org
Crime and Safety
The City of San Diego's Neighborhood eWatch
Neighborhood eWatch is designed to automatically alert you via E-mail of recent crime activity in your selected
neighborhood(s).This free subscription service will act as a "cyber" neighborhood
watch, providing citizens with information to help reduce crime in
their neighborhoods and to increase interaction between neighbors and
the Police Department. Click here to be magically transported to the site where you can receive regular notifications of crime in your area.
Introducing Elsa Kozaki from the San Diego Police Department:
From Officer Elsa Kozacki:
As everyone is aware my position as Police Service Officer was cut from the city budget in December. I am sorry to inform everyone, as of March 1, 2010, I will no longer be working at Western Division as a community relations officer. I have been reassigned to the Records Division at Headquarters as a Police Records Data Specialist. This is the position I held before coming to Western. I will truly miss everyone, especially the friendships I have developed with my Neighborhood Watch groups. Thank you for your continued support through the years. I believe in the coming years Neighborhood Watch will become even more important to the community.
All questions or issues will continue to be directed to your Community Relations Officer, David Surwilo. He is available at the Peninsula Storefront (619) 531-1540 or at his e-mail dsurwilo@pd.sandiego.gov.
More from Elsa:
1) Reverse 911 notifications.
2) Contact information for the CERT program (Community Emergency Response Team) sponsored by the San Diego FIre-Rescue Department. This program trains residents to help their neighborhoods get through the first few hours/days of an emergency situation when the fire and police departments are not able to respond to every call for help. For more information about the CERT program go to: http://www.sandiego.gov/fireandems/cert/
3) CERT powerpoint presentation.
Here is the website to register for the reverse 911 notifications for cell phones. In the case of disasters, fires, or evacuations there will be a call sent to your cell phone instructing you on what to do and where to go. Hope everyone finds this helpful.
Elsa Kozacki
San Diego Police Department
Peninsula Storefront
619 531-1540
An excellent contact for the Neighborhood Watch groups is www.ReadySanDiego.org. This link takes you to the County of San Diego Office of Emergency Services site which can also be accessed via http://www.sdcounty.ca.gov/oes/ready/
On page 1 of www.ReadySanDiego.org there is a link to every CERT group in the region, including the City of San Diego. Clicking on the City contact takes you directly to the City of San Diego web site. You can add your cellphone number to the regional "reverse 911" data base under the AlertSanDiego program. All listed and unlisted land phones are already included in this regional data base. There is a wealth of information, emergency checklists, training, etc. on this site.
Here's a great document about common parking violations from SDPD•
Juvenile Crime and Punishment
About 30 Neighborhood Watch Block Captains met at the SDPD Western Division offices on March 3, 2009 to hear detective Ted Kasinak (619-692-4830) and officer Tim Zetterland (619-692-4805) of Juvenile Services discuss crime issues related to juveniles (anyone under 18). Also attending and participating were our regular hosts, officers Elsa Kozacki and David Surwilo.
We have an ample number of juvenile “knuckleheads” in the Western Division, but ours are fairly mild compared to those in other areas, such as Southeast. Juveniles are normally involved in property crimes (residential and auto burglaries), drugs, loitering, curfew, shoplifting and minor gang stuff. There is a new Pt. Loma gang that is pretty active –“MOA” or “Money Over Anything.” Linda Vista also has quite a few gangs, but they are more like traditional gangs. But things have been nice and quiet in Linda Vista lately because most of the bad guys have been locked up, as adults.
Many citizens often wonder why juveniles are often caught doing a crime, such as a residential burglary, one day and they are back out on the street the next day. This is because juvenile courts focus on REHABILITATION, rather than punishment. If a juvenile is arrested, the officer needs to complete a FULL report before taking him or her to Juvenile Hall. And then they are normally released to a parent. Their release can also depend on just how crowded or busy Juvenile Hall is at the time. The arrest process is much more complicated than with adults. It is very frustrating for officers to arrest juveniles because of the extra paperwork and that they are often released quickly. But Detective Kasinak said that rehab programs work lots of the time, and that things have been much better lately.
When adults are released from prision, they are on “parole.” When juveniles are released, they are on “probation.”
Most juvenile criminals come from single parent, normally just the mother, families. Mothers just don’t do that much with their kids and are often gone a lot. Fatherly role models and discipline are often absent. And mothers often make the problem worse when they don’t want to do anything to control their children, side with their children and blame the police.
Three officers work juvenile crimes in the Western Division. Probation officers have 30-50 cases per month. And there are about 90-100 crimes per month involving juveniles in the Western Division.
The curfew for juveniles is 10 PM.
Common Scams or Crimes Involving Juveniles
1. Door to Door Solicitations. First, the curfew for door to door solicitations is 8 PM. Adults commonly hire teenagers to solicit door to door, drive them to wealthy areas in vans and drop them off. The kids actually get very little for this. Many of the things they are selling are scams, useless or over priced. Do not buy anything from them and ask for ID’s, licenses or receipts. Some block captains even just ask them to leave the neighborhood. NOTE that “raising money for SDSU baseball” is proven scam. Also, raising money on the phonefor the “retired police officers association” is a scam. Do not encourage or support them.
2. Do not open the door to strangers. Talk through the door, a window or a peep hole. If someone looks suspicious or has a suspicious reason for knocking on your door, take a good look at them and be a GOOD WITNESS.
3. Pizza or Other Flyers. There have been reports of people distributing pizza flyers that are also casing homes, stealing things or doing other illegal things. Give the SDPD a call if you see anyone allegedly doing this but doing anything suspicious, like going into back yards. The non-emergency number is 531-2000.
4. Skateboarders “Grinding” on Personal or Public Property. Skate boarding is not illegal, but “grinding” on walls or railings is. A lot of damage of this type has occurred in Bird Park and Balboa Park. If you see this kind of activity going on, report it immediately to the non-emergency SDPD number.
Graham Blair, NW Block Captain, Carmel Heights•
Councilman Kevin Faulconer says:
The Water Department has asked me and my council colleagues to distribute notices of the City’s Public Education Series on Level 2 water restrictions.
Here is a flyer, and let me know if you have any questions.
Thank you.
Kevin
SUGGESTIONS FOR OTHER FORUMS:
LOST AND FOUND
Meetings and Activities
Save Our Heritage Organisation
Dear Friend of Preservation:
As you know, last month we launched a new website for the Neighborhood Historic Preservation Coalition at www.nhpcsd.org.
If you haven’t done so already, please take a moment to sign up for email updates from the Coalition at the bottom of this item. It is really important for us to build this email list so we can respond quickly and loudly to preservation issues that come up for a vote at the City.
We have created links from the NHPC website to most of our member websites and would greatly appreciate if you would link to ours (www.nhpcsd.org) from yours.
Please feel free to forward this email on to anyone else who may want to sign up for NHPC email updates.
Thank you!
Kristin Harms
Neighborhood Historic Preservation Coalition
Advocating for measures that preserve the established neighborhoods and historic resources of San Diego for future generations
email: nhpc@att.net
website: www.nhpcsd.org
Sign up for email updates here
Starting June 2, 2009 Old Town will open it new Visitors Center. We are
looking for people who would enjoy meeting out of town guests, here to visit
San Diego.
Hours will be from 11 am until 7 pm. You will provide information, and
directions. Answer phone, hand out written information, sell tickets to San
Diego attractions and anything else pertaining to addressing the needs of
guests.
Contact Marie at: 619 291 4903 or email:otsd@aol.com Please leave name
and phone number.