Crime & Safety

Redmond Police Use Holistic Approach to Tackle Car Prowls

The department relies on crime analysts and neighborhood outreach to string together cases and catch repeat offenders.

Editor's note: This story was originally published on May 10, 2011.

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It’s a feeling all theft victims know—the heart-sinking moment when you realize your home, car or office has been accessed by a stranger.

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Redmond resident Coleen Warriner experienced the feeling in 2009 when she became a victim of a smash-and-grab on a hot summer day at Idylwood Beach Park. Upon returning to her SUV after an afternoon of swimming, Warriner’s son instantly noticed something was wrong.

“I walked around, and the passenger-side window was completely shattered,” she recalled. “I started panicking. I immediately looked in, and my purse was gone.”

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Car prowls are one of the most common crimes in Redmond, with 612 incidents reported in 2010. That's up 11 percent from the 550 car prowls that were reported in 2009.

In response to the ongoing prevalence of car prowls, the Redmond Police Department (RPD) has developed several initiatives to investigate the crimes and solve more cases, said police spokesman Jim Bove.

RPD recently created a special undercover investigation team called the Pro-Act Unit, which works to build cases against criminals who repeatedly commit property crimes, including car prowls and car thefts. Since 2005, the department has also supported a full-time specialist who collaborates with other King County agencies to track break-ins and look for trends.

Detectives use a cross-jurisdiction database to look for trends in location, method of break-in and other details, Bove said. The ultimate goal, he said, is to take a more holistic approach to solving these crimes by looking for repeat offenders and establishing connections between property crimes and other types of offenses, especially those that are drug related.

“It’s one of those things where you make (one) arrest, a lot of dominoes start to fall,” he said.

Benefits of collaboration

Along with internal changes, Redmond Police have also been working to improve their communication and follow-up procedure with car prowl victims. Officer Julie Beard is one of Redmond’s two neighborhood resource officers and has been assigned to evaluate the way the department handles car prowls.

Beard said she believes the holistic investigation approach has greatly improved the way the department investigates car prowls. By stringing together various crimes, the detectives and prosecutors are able to build stronger cases against offenders and keep them off the streets longer, she said.

“I can’t tell you how many cases I’ve closed because of info from the crime analyst,” Beard said. “They know (suspects’) patterns and who does what.”

But Beard also believes there is room for the department to improve its response to car prowls. One problem, she said, is that patrol officers alternate weekday and weekend shifts every few months, which can make it difficult for officers to track criminal patterns.

Beard said she has also recommended the department introduce an email reporting system that would enable victims to report car prowls to a blanket address that would be accessible by several officers.

The role of the victim

Victims can also help the police be more effective at solving crimes, Bove and Beard said. People often hesitate to report the crimes because they think the incident was too minor or there is no chance the police will be able to solve the case, Bove said.

But even incidents in which nothing is stolen can help police build a case against a repeat offender, he said.

“The problem is if it’s not reported, we can’t find anybody,” he said.

After she discovered her purse had been stolen at Idylwood, Warriner was not sure how to react. Her husband recommended she call 911, but Warriner was hesitant.

“I didn’t think they would respond because it was kind of a minor thing,” she said.

But Warriner was pleasantly surprised when an officer not only responded but conducted a thorough investigation and dusted her vehicle for fingerprints. The officer also asked Warriner to look for unwarranted charges on her credit cards and report the time and location of the activity to police—information that ended up leading to the arrest of a group of suspects responsible for a ring of car break-ins.

After Warriner told police that her cards had been used at a Target store, officers were able to retrieve surveillance video from the store and identify the suspects. Warriner said she was pleased the police were able to follow through and catch the perpetrators.

“I think that’s kind of the perception a lot of people have, that the police don’t have time for this minor stuff,” she said. “But they did.”

It’s also important for people who notice a car prowl in progress to remain calm and call 911 right away, Beard and Bove said. People who bang on their window or yell at a perpetrator will typically scare the suspect away and leave police little chance of catching him or her, they said.

Instead, Beard recommends witnesses call 911 while continuing to watch the crime from a safe distance.

“The people that do that for us usually get us arrests,” she said.

Reducing crime through prevention

A final piece to the department’s fight against car prowls is to prevent them from happening in the first place. A large part of Beard’s job is convincing people how quickly and easily their items can be stolen from their vehicles.

Beard said she thinks Redmond’s overall low crime rates contribute to a mindset that makes people think they don’t need to secure their valuables or lock their vehicles.

“People are safe … but their stuff isn’t,” she said.

In the two years since her purse was stolen, Warriner said, she’s adopted new habits when she parks her car. At the time, she believed that no one would be able to see her purse because her SUV had darkly tinted windows and the bag was hidden beneath the seats.

But after she realized the thieves probably knew her purse was there because they had watched her get out of her car, Warriner decided not to take any chances.

“I just don’t leave anything in there anymore,” she said.


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