Crestmoor Park (Filing 2) Homes Association

Community Advisory Meetings - October 5 & November 2, 2005

Presentations by Commander Pat Flynn, Lieutenant James Cosgrove,

Criminal concerns in District 3, Precinct 315:

* Pattern Theft From Motor Vehicles (TFMV)
* Residential Burglaries
* Theft From Garages
* Pattern Auto Theft

Residential Burglaries:

As you may recall, the 9-28-05 edition of the Rocky Mt News reported that crime had increased significantly in District 3: “Commander, Patrick Flynn, said property crime increased significantly in District 3 during the first half of 2005, particularly in the Washington Park, Cherry Creek and Congress Park neighborhoods”.

At the October Community Advisory Meeting at District 3 station, shortly after the Rocky article, Commander Flynn distributed a 12-page document summarizing his response. His conclusions:

* Property crime spiked in early spring and “has since steadily declined” (my comments about stats later)
* “Officers of all ranks in the dept. accept responsibility for crime that takes place in their area”
* There are a “myriad of reasons why crime has increased and arrests declined over the last few years” including: reduced staffing, increased calls, and increased time to handle calls
* The new records management system shows “promise for targeting resources in the most appropriate and timely manner”
* The federal DNA grant will increase arrests in Dist. 3 (It was announced 10-6-05 that Denver received a $417,207 grant from The Department of Justice to “assess the cost-effectiveness of expanding the collection of DNA evidence from high volume serious crimes to property crimes, particularly burglary”.)

Other notes

* Theft from garages continues to be a problem in the neighborhood. High-end bicycles are often stolen. We were reminded to be certain that the garage door closes, though there also have been cases of breaking and entering. The police suggest that we call our neighbors to remind them of open garage doors.
* There must be many burglars preying on our neighborhood. At the October meeting we heard that Dist. 3 officers had arrested 3 burglars, incidentally, all Aurora residents. At the November meeting we heard that they had made additional 3 or 4 arrests, and more were noted in John Sadwith’s email of November 3rd. (A thank you to the Dist. 3 Officers!)
* Commander Flynn said that with the high level of construction in our neighborhood, there are many strangers around, including many day laborers. He suggested that we keep a watch on who is around each other’s houses.
* The police continued to set up “bait” garages in the hopes of catching those stealing from open garages. No luck to date.
* We were reminded to “Lock It and Stop It” (lock your car and hide any valuables) to prevent thefts from motor vehicles
* By your request, officers will come to your home to do a home security survey.

Distributed paperwork (you can probably pick these up at the station house or the Cop Shop):

1. District Three Contact/Phone Number Sheet, revised 5/05
2. Leetsdale Cop Shop Information Sheet
3. Citizens’ Academy 2006 Class Schedule
4. Press Release: New Phone Number for District Police Stations,

Gang Bureau and Language Line: 720-913-COPS (2677), to contact District 3, press 4.

5. One Crime Alert! Sheet: Suspect committed sexual assaults at Leetsdale and Quebec St.
6. Let’s Beat Property Crime…You Can Help: an article by Cpl. Kevin Malloy about the increase in property crime in East Central Denver. It’s a good summary, the main points are:
* Denver Police are hard at work to stop this problem
* many burglaries are crimes of opportunity, “take steps to protect yourself, your family, and your possessions”;
* lock windows and doors, even when home, even when gardening;
* keep your garage door closed;
* lock the deadbolt between your garage and your house
* contact the police if you see a door-to-door salesman either not displaying a Peddler’s Permit or seeming suspicious
* lock your car and secure your valuables
* don’t leave your keys in your car when you’re not in it!
* Non-Emergency Dispatch: 720-913-2000
7. DPD 2005 - newsletter: can be viewed at www.dpd2005.org
8. DPD maps of crime in the city January – July 2005.



For those of you who enjoy numbers, from the information I’ve been able to collect (I do have a pending public information request in for additional data for 2005), I was able to pull together these stats below.

From 2001 to 2004 there has been almost a 20% increase in total crimes for Precinct 315.

From 2001 to 2004 there has been an increase in burglaries of over 125%.

Let me know if you’d like more information from my data.

If you know of incidents not noted in my summary, if you have information that you think it would be useful to add, or if you know that I made an error in this, please let me know. You can write to me directly at pslbreese@msn.com.