The Allandale Reporter

Getting Underway with the Allandale Neighborhood Patrol

About 25 residents came to the neighborhood patrol training last night with John Luther, head of the program in Barton Hills. John, thank you so much! Special thanks to District Representative Officer Troy Schouest, who was present as well to explain how APD’s “Citizens on Patrol” (COPS) program is run and answer questions. The main difference is that APD’s program involves 8 hours of training and a background check, whereas what John Luther is doing in Barton Hills requires his 1 hour training along with continued supervision by Mr. Luther. Officer Schouset commended the Barton Hills program and said APD has no problem with this kind of citizen led activity as long as the number one priority is keeping volunteers safe. Both programs follow the strict guidelines that volunteer patrols do not get out of their cars and no weapons are allowed. The key is to look for suspicious activity and call 911. Let me know if you are interested in the COPS program because we can have a training at a location in Allandale.

Allandale Neighborhood Patrol Training

Where: NW Recreation Center @ 2913 Northland Dr.

When:  7-8pm Wednesday, February 3, 2010 

Why:  If you’re tired of all the burglaries, come learn from John Luther of Barton Hills how to do a neighborhood patrol.  People who are interested in helping keep an eye out for suspicious activity, willing to take pictures, write down information, and call 911, are encouraged to attend.  We are hoping to have bike and car patrols in Allandale.  People can volunteer as little as 1 hour a week or as much as their schedule allows.  There will be no contact with any criminals, and those who attempt to will not be allowed to continue as neighborhood patrollers.  Vigilantes need not get involved!

For more information please contact your block captain or Allandale Neighborhood Watch Coordinator Laura DiCarlo at 323-6929 or lhdicarlo@yahoo.com.

Hope to see you Tuesday, Feb.2nd at 6:30 at McCallum HS for the Commander’s Forum and Wednesday at NW Rec.  Thanks!

Commanders Forum, February 2, 6:30 pm

From: LaHood, Kelly 
To: Allandale Reporter 
Subject: Commanders Forum 

Good afternoon All, 

I would like to personally invite you to our next Commanders Forum for a specific issue and to spread the word to anyone who has an opinion about transients in Austin. We have a City Council member coming to the meeting to listen to issues and concerns that people have when it comes to transients. Each of you, at one time or another, has expressed concerns about what we can do (all of us) about transients in our parks, neighborhoods and street corners. The meeting is at McCallum High school (5600 Sunshine Dr) at 6:30pm on February 2, 2010. 

This is a hot topic with many citizens in Austin so voice your concerns and have a council member actually LISTEN. 

Officer Kelly LaHood
Central West District Reps
974-5833

Please join our yahoo group for crime information in our area: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/centralwestdr/
Join the Austin Police Department Citizen Observer www.citizenobserver.com/registration/isp

Neighborhoods Ganging Up on Crime

Tom Linehan

How about an Allandale neighbor patrol to deter crime? Sound far-fetched? That is what Barton Hills Neighborhood Association (BHNA) has done. John Luther, BHNA's neighborhood crime watch coordinator talked about this novel approach with other neighborhood watch coordinators around the city at Saturday's Crime Safety Meet-Up at North Village Library. 

BHNA started the resident patrols back in December. The volunteers simply drive around the neighborhood looking out for suspicious behavior. The patrols run both during the morning hours, when home burglaries are most often committed, and late evening hours when car burglaries occur. Volunteers drive a one hour shift using their vehicles bearing Neighborhood Watch Patrol signs. Is it working? It's a little early to say however it clearly shows a determined effort to reduce crime within Barton Hills.

Burglaries are Up Significantly in Allandale

The numbers back it up. Allandale has a crime problem. There were 73 burglaries that were reported in Allandale in 2009 according to the Austin Police Department's Crime Viewer. That is 31 more than were reported in 2008. In fact, it is the highest number of burglary of residence in Allandale in the last 5 years. The top crime in the neighborhood is Burglary of Vehicle, criminals stealing from cars, with 167 incidents reported. The number three crime is Burglary of Residence. If you have been following the neighborhood listserve, this is no surprise. 

Crime/Safety Seminar 1/23/10 from 2-4pm

from Laura DiCarlo:

There has been a lot of talk about recent break-ins, and I'm concerned about the spike in thefts and burglaries in Allandale.  I encourage all of you to attend the meeting on Saturday, January 23rd from 2-4pm at north Village Library in which we will talk about this trend throughout the city.  Our District Rep, Kelly LaHood, will be present. Mary Arnett, who writes an e newsletter in N. Shoal Creek reported that a group of burglars were caught using serial numbers.  Please mark your property, and please let me know if you would like to use the ANA electric engraver.  I was going to attach a manual that lists home safety tips and other ideas for keeping your belongings as well protected as possible, but since attachments don't work on the listserve please let me or your block captain know if you would like this information.  I put a list of ideas in the most recent newsletter as well.

I will be doing another block captain training very soon - please call or e-mail me if interested.  

Thanks,

Allandale Neighborhood Watch Coordinator
lhdicarlo@yahoo.com
323-6929

Christmas Theft in the Shoalmont area of Allandale!

My husband and I recently bought our first home together in Allandale, the former home of Tom Spencer of Central Texas Gardener (and the site of his beautiful garden).

Over Christmas, many items were stolen.  The bench in the photo was one of the stolen items. We are offering a reward and would love to have help getting the word out to neighbors. Please call 512/771-1776 or email aria@kilpatrick.org

I have written a post about this at my own website at: http://austinhome.pro/you-can-help-catch-a-christmas-theif/

Crime Activity in the Area

There has been a spike in residential burglaries in the Baker3 district area. The effected neighborhoods are as follows: North Shoal Creek Neighborhood, Allandale Neighborhood, Wooten Neighborhood, Crestview Neighborhood, and Highland Neighborhood

Methods of break-in consist of breaking out rear windows, kicking in front or rear doors, prying open doors or making entry through windows and doors which were left unlocked. In the past month from October 28th thru November 23rd there have been at least 23 residential burglaries in these neighborhoods combined. 

Krimelabb Presentation

Krimelabb presentation that was Sat. 10/17 at 2pm at North Village library

It was so beautiful on Saturday and the UT game wasn't over by 2pm that we were lucky we got a few people at the Krimelabb presentation.

Jack Darby presented to a small but enthusiastic crowd of 5 (and 4 neighborhood associations were represented - Highland, NShoalCreek, Wooten and Allandale). It was very worthwhile learning about how Jack uses data from APD and synthesizes it in www.krimelabb.com. He does not send out e-mails like Spotcrime, but we can go to the site and look up crime information from all over Austin since 2007. The site gives specific addresses (unless it's a rape case) and case numbers, as well as has some mug shots and data to show who has been arrested the most and why in any given area. The site is a good complement to spotcrime and the City of Austin's Crimeviewer.

Jack Darby will be doing another free krimelabb power-user presentation at North Village at 1pm on Nov. 21st and I encourage especially the block captains to attend.

Thanks,
Laura DiCarlo
lhdicarlo@yahoo.com

Krimelabb Demonstration, Saturday Oct 17

I want to let everyone know about a presentation the ANA Safety Committee is hosting at North Village Branch library on Saturday, October 17th at 2pm. Jack Darby will be showing us how to use krimelabb as a tool to deter crime. This free presentation takes about 30 minutes and will address

how to obtain the following info:
-Crime instances for a zip for a given month
-Crime instances in proximity to an address for a given month
-Crime instances by offense for a given month
-People who have been arrested the most in a zip code
-Addresses with the most crime instances in a zip code
-People who have been arrested the most near an address  

Jack has most recently presented at the Montopolis Neighborhood Association and West Austin Neighborhood group's Crime and Safety Seminar, and you can follow krimelab on Twitter. 

As always, call or e-mail me to set up a block captain training.

Thanks,
Laura DiCarlo
323-6929
lhdicarlo@yahoo.com