Crime Prevention Section

Citizens Patrol volunteers receive training in putting out fires

Mission
Crime Prevention is part of the Community Services Division.

The mission of the Crime Prevention Section is to provide education and information to the business, educational, and residential communities in Lynnwood, with the goal of reducing opportunities for crime.

Personnel
Crime Prevention is staffed by 2 crime prevention specialists and 1 Police Information Officer.

VIPS conduct vacation house checks, deliver internal city mail, check for disabled parking violators, patrol school zones, and help with clerical duties, as needed. Some of those duties include tracking disabled parking citations, false alarms, consolidating monthly volunteer hours on a spread sheet and sending out status letters to victims. They also assist with the Memory Impairment Assistance Program.

Citizens Patrol members act as extra eyes and ears for the Police Department. They help prevent and reduce crime through the observation and reporting of suspicious or possible criminal activities. Citizens Patrol members conduct bike patrol, disabled parking enforcement, neighborhood visits, radar watch, business watch, car unlocks, decoy car deployment, child care, translation for officers, and other projects as assigned. They also direct traffic at accident scenes and are called out to help with emergencies, such as storms, flooding, and traffic control at fatality accidents.

Activity & Accomplishments

• Transported adults and juveniles from Arlington north to Tacoma south.
• Directed traffic for Mayor Hrdlicka’s Memorial Service at Convention Center.
• Participated in Lynnwood events such as: Lynnwood Lights, Fourth of July Fireworks, Bunny Blast and Flashlight Egg Hunt.
• Directed traffic at Silver Creek Community Church for their Easter Egg event.
• Assisted the Police Department with Lynnwood Police Officers Association Banquet, the 50th Anniversary Police Photo event breakfast, cell extraction training for the jail and assisted with an area check following a bank robbery.
• Assisted law enforcement with Mountlake Terrace Joint Fire/Police Evacuation Drill, Bike Rodeo, Lynnwood Spring Clean-up, Battle of the Bands Annual Rock-it Fest, Shop with a Cop event, Touch a Truck Early Learning Fair at the Library, Tip A Cop at Claim Jumper, Drive to Remember event, and National Night Out.
• Assisted at various community safety fairs: Premera Blue Cross, Cedar Valley Community School Back-to-School Fair, Edmonds Pre-School Co-op at Edmonds Community Church, and Alderwood Boys & Girls Club. · Assisted Snohomish County District Court for Law Day.
• Continue to assist the Police Department in the “Lynnwood Against Graffiti Program”.
•  Assisted in a community outreach campaign for the department’s free Memory Impairment Assistance Program for Lynnwood citizens who have the potential to wander away from caregivers. · Provided security personnel on foot, in cars, and on bikes to assist Edmonds Police Department with their Fourth of July Parade.
• Assisted Edmonds Police Department with traffic at their shredding event. 
• Assisted the Mill Creek Police Department with traffic control at their Memorial Day event. 
• Assisted Stevens Hospital with several H1N1 flu vaccination clinics. Represented the volunteers at the funerals for the Seattle Police Department Officer, the four Lakewood Officers, and the Pierce County Deputy all killed in the line of duty.

Volunteer Emergency and Incident Response
Volunteers received enhanced training in emergency response, and subsequently continue to be utilized in an even greater capacity. They logged approximately 53 hours responding to emergency call-outs and 672 hours staffing special events. They directed traffic 273 times, provided numerous transports for people in need, and assisted with security at various crime scenes. Bike patrol logged 261 hours riding trails, patrolling parks and providing holiday security plus other special events. In addition, bike patrol members completed 200 hours of International Police Mountain Bike Association (IPMBA) and other related training.

Child Car Seat Inspection Program
This program is now in its eighth year and has met the increased demand of inspecting and installing child safety restraint seats. Six nationally trained technicians (four full-time employees and two volunteers) staff the program. Two hundred eighty-four (284) car seat inspections were completed in 2009 at the Lynnwood Police Department, for a total of 481 internal and external program hours. Lynnwood’s Car Seat program is one of the few in the greater Puget Sound area, and as such has served families from Camano Island to Kent. In 2009 the program also had an opportunity to donate 23 car seats to local in-need families.

Community Crime Prevention Outreach
Crime prevention specialists held a three-day seminar for apartment managers, conducted neighborhood watch meetings, facilitated monthly volunteer training, coordinated public outreach events, provided tours of the Police Department, spoke to local organizations, and made presentations to the business community and schools, including English as a Second language. In addition, they taught personal safety and crime prevention to groups of all ages--from preschool to seniors. Crime Prevention personnel gave 216 public presentations and met 10 times with representatives of law enforcement agencies from Washington to provide assistance and materials on implementing citizens patrol type programs.

Disabled Parking Enforcement
Volunteers continue to enforce disabled parking restrictions by giving verbal and written warnings as well as citations for violations. They had 257 written citations in 2009 and 235 additional verbal contacts and written warnings, for a total of 492. Members have been trained in the use of the police car mobile data computer (MDC), which enhances their ability to conduct this function. They believe the on-going decrease in violations is due in part to their vigorous enforcement and education.

Citizens Academy
The Lynnwood Police Department conducted its 19th annual 16-week Citizens Academy with approximately 85 attendees. Of those, 20 graduates have since joined the Citizens Patrol or VIPS. Crime Prevention personnel devoted about 180 hours to preparation for and production of this popular police/community program.

Citizens Patrol Academy
Twenty-four new CP members (including four from Mill Creek PD) completed the 18-session CP training academy program, now in its fourth year.

Memory Impairment Assistance Program
This program, with assistance from the VIPS, increases safety for people who are memory-impaired, by providing them with free wristbands to identify them if they become lost or wander away from caregivers. In 2009, there were five people registered for this program.

False Alarm Reduction Program
There were 314 false alarms in 2009. The Department generated $34,375 in false alarm revenue. There are currently no businesses or residences on “no response” status.

Freeway Cleanup
Citizens Patrol adopted a section of the I-5 freeway in 2006 and agreed to clean their area four times a year as part of their service to the public. They continue to devote time to this project.

Car Unlock Service / Other Public Assists
Members of the Citizens Patrol have been extensively trained and equipped to open car doors for citizens who have locked keys in their cars. During 2009, they unlocked 255 vehicles for grateful citizens. In some cases, infants or small children were locked inside. In addition, Citizens Patrol had an additional 325 requests for help from jumpstarts to finding lost vehicles and also handled 22 transports.

Shop with a Cop
The Crime Prevention Section began this annual community outreach program in 2006 to help local inneed children and their parents during the holidays. This program fosters good relationships with law enforcement and works with parts of the community where police interactions haven’t always been positive. The 2009 Shop with a Cop event benefited 19 local single mothers and 25 children.

Diversity and Language Translation
Lynnwood Police volunteers are from at least five varied ethnicities and speak many different languages. These diverse members are sometimes asked to help with translation for the Lynnwood Police Department, as well as other area law enforcement agencies.

Volunteer Training
Lynnwood Police volunteers participated in 5,940 hours of training on subjects such as verbal judo, defensive tactics, first aid/CPR, directing traffic, disabled parking enforcement, use of the police radio, computer and Nextels, car unlocks, bike patrol, CERT, and EVOC. Each group meets for training at least once a month.

National Night Out The 2009
National Night Out Against Crime involved about 30 different neighborhoods. Police and fire personnel, along with Citizens Patrol and VIPS, met with community neighborhoods at this annual crime prevention educational event.

Pedestrian Safety Education and Enforcement
The Crime Prevention Section continues to work closely with the department’s Traffic Section and also Lynnwood Fire Department in educating all ages regarding pedestrian crosswalk safety. Along with this ongoing education, Crime Prevention continued to assist the Traffic Section with crosswalk stings that focused on drivers who failed to yield to pedestrians.

Press Releases And Public Safety Announcements
The public information officer sent out more than 100 press releases and/or public safety announcements to the general public and media in 2009. Keeping the public posted on the activities of the Lynnwood Police Department builds a rapport and trust with the community. It is also an important way to educate the public on how they can help to prevent crime. A quarterly crime prevention newsletter aimed at apartment and condominium residents, that was started in 2007, continues to be published.

Citizens Patrol 2004