Update on Shooting

The police have identified the victim in yesterday's shooting as Durval Martins. The police are looking for information on the murder, and have released this flier seeking the public's help. If you have any information, please contact the Detective Paul Regan at (202) 425-5563 (mobile) or (202) 645-0472 (desk); or Detective Doug Carlson at (202) 486-0233 (mobile) or (202) 645-6360 (desk); or the anonymous tip line at (888) 919-2746, or by texting to 50411.

Shooting at Q and Rhode Island

Inspector Delgado posted the following to the MPD-3d listserv at 4:56 this morning:

On December 16th 2008, an Officer of the Third District while on patrol heard a series of gunshots. The officer responded to 11th and Rhode Island Ave, N.W. and observed a male suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. The victim was taken to a local hospital where he died of his injuries. If anyone has information regarding this shooting please call our tip line on 1 888 919 CRIME. You can also text on 50411# or call our Command Center at 202 727 9099.

That location is a mere half block from the new dog park. I'll update this post as more information comes in. This recent spate of violence in the northwest Logan/northeast Shaw/U Street area is a definite cause for concern for all area residents.

What *IS* Up With All The Stolen Cars?

A good post over at 14th & You draws attention to an unexpected uptick in the number of stolen cars in the neighborhood. Though homicides and muggings tend to get the lion's share of attention in our neighborhood forums, property crimes like theft of and theft from autos are the vast majority of our local crime.

Do any of our local PSA officers reading (I know there's a few of you!) have any information to share?

Shot Spotter Mostly Avoids Logan

The City Desk blog has posted the following image of the boundaries of the areas covered by the long-in-coming-but-finally-here Shot Spotter. Originally billed as the "Shaw Shot Spotter", as you can see, it actually covers a much, much larger area.

On the one hand, it speaks volumes as to the overall crime picture here in Logan Circle that our neighborhood is almost entirely - and, it almost seems, intentionally - left out of the coverage area. On the other hand, with everyone buzzing about the recent murder in the alley behind Vermont Avenue, I have to admit it would have been nice to have coverage there.

(Thanks City Desk for the map!)

Information on Homicide in Vermont Ave. Alley

So by now most of us have heard about the homicide in the alley behind the 1300 block of Vermont Avenue. Heck, it even made DCist. Here's what is known, after a few days of processing and information gathering:

• The call came in at around 2:00 AM on Thursday, July 17, to this alley.


• The victim was dead at the scene, apparently from a gunshot wound to the head.


• The victim has been identified as Derrick Green, who was a suspect in many of the robberies around our neighborhood.


• It appears he was out in the alley to fight with somebody; and, well, as the saying goes...

If you have any information on this murder, please call +1 202.727.9099 or 1-888-919-CRIM. Or send an anonymous text messaging to 50411. There is a reward of $25,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible.

Theft From Auto in PSA 307

One of the biggest problems in Logan Circle is the ubiquitous Theft From Auto. According to the DC Crime Map, in the last two months, 84 out of 148 property crimes in our neighborhood were car break-ins. Over half of the thefts in our neighborhood are of valuables from cars. And the problem is getting worse. The statistics show a 15% increase in these crimes over last year. With the summer months fast approaching, I'm guessing we'll see an even larger increase over last year.

The solution to the problem requires a two-prong approach. First, residents and visitors must not leave valuables in their vehicles. Theft from Auto is a crime of opportunity. Unattended items in a car present an easy chance to grab-and-run, and the quiet residential nature of so much of Logan Circle makes for a low risk of getting caught. Look at the crime map above: You don't see many break-ins on 14th Street or in front of Whole Foods! We need a campaign to educate the residents and visitors in our neighborhood to be smart about what they leave in their automobiles.

The other piece of the puzzle is police enforcement. The quick nature of a Theft from Auto means that police don't usually catch the thief red-handed. We only get that lucky once in a while. There are other techniques, though, besides patrolling the streets. The MPD has successfully used bait cars to catch smash-and-grab thieves quite recently on Capitol Hill. Logan Circle is a perfect candidate for bait cars, and if they're not already in use here, let's hope they can be brought to bare soon.

In theory, it only takes a few arrests from a bait car to dramatically bring down the crime rate. The idea is similar to the idea of the LoJack:

The thief's challenge is that it's impossible to determine which vehicle has a LoJack (there's no decal). So stealing any car becomes significantly more risky, and one academic study found that the introduction of LoJack in Boston reduced car theft there by 50 percent.

In this case, though, the thief has to decide whether or not the car is actually an MPD bait car. Even though the number of bait cars is very small, if the thief happens to "win" that lottery, he's absolutely guaranteed to be caught. Making a living stealing from cars becomes much, much riskier. So instead of spending millions of dollars on crime cameras that don't work, perhaps we should consider spending money on more bait cars and officers (or auxiliaries!) to monitor them.

Orange Hat Patrol in the Robotic Age

In the old days, many of the trail-blazing residents of Logan Circle would resort to drastic and dramatic measures to combat the crime, drugs, and prostitution that ran rampant in our neighborhood prior to its revitalization. I love hearing stories from them about blocking the streets to keep johns from circling the block, or donning brightly-colored hats and sneaking up on cars with johns and hookers in flagrante and blasting them with air horns.

The modern Neighborhood Watch, though, has some more sophisticated tools under its belt. Like this armoured robot armed with a water canon!

He flashes the robot's spotlight and grabs a walkie-talkie, which he uses to boom his disembodied voice over the robot's sound system.

"I tell them they are trespassing, it's private property, and they have to leave," he said. "They throw bottles and cans at it. That's when I shoot the water cannon. They just scatter like roaches."

I'm not really sure we need another crime-fighting robot in PSA 307, though. After all, we already have Lt. Smith.

El Sauce

As I mentioned in the last ANC 2F Wrap-Up, the ANC is looking for complaints to assist in a protest of El Sauce, at 1227 11th Street. Here's a good one, that just came across the listserv, courtesy of Johnnie Jackson from ABRA, forwarded by Jack Evans:

On 1/18/2008 at approximately 10:30 p.m. a patron who had just left the El Sauce Restaurant and Carryout, 1227 11th Street NW, was attacked by another male a short distance from the establishment. The suspect cut the patron in the hand with a knife, and hit him with his fists. The patron, who was taken to GW Hospital, suffered cuts to his head due to his fall and a laceration to his hand. The suspect was not apprehended. Investigation has determined that the suspect had entered the establishment earlier during the evening and tried to pick a fight with the customers. There is no indication that the suspect had a knife while inside the establishment.

With the information from Lt. Smith that this location is a frequent gang hotspot, El Sauce could be in some hot ... er, sauce.

Bicycle Thief, Car Thief

Here's a great story posted to the MPD-3D mailing list by Officer Andrew Zabavsky. It highlights the difficultly of prosecuting even a criminal caught red-handed stealing a bicycle chained to a sign, and later items from a car.

Some back-story is in order: The suspect mentioned below was caught by Officer Edwards stealing a bike from a street sign to which it had been locked. He removed the sign face from the post, and then was in the process of lifting the bike and lock over the top of the sign! The man was arrested, but that's not the end of the story. Officer Zabavsky picks it up:

Unfortunately Mr. Teals [sic] case was "No-Papered" by the US Attorneys office the following morning. The US Attorney stated that since there was no complainant for the bicycle theft, they would not go forward on that charge, and as for the Destruction of Property charge, the attorney stated that since Mr. Teal carefully unbolted the signs using a wrench and placed the signs down, that they would not go forward with that charge as well and he was released.

On the bright side, I happened to be traveling in the 1200 block of Massachusetts Ave on Friday night and heard a car horn beep several times. As I looked over at the car, I observed an individual leaning through the right rear passenger window of the vehicle. The individual then looked up and observed my police car, exited the window and walked off. I exited my car and approached the parked vehicles window and observed that the window had been smashed and the vehicle was ransacked. I then got back into my car and stopped the individual around the corner on 13Th Street. The individual that was stopped was no other than Mr.Teal. He had stolen several CD's from the vehicle which had New Jersey license plates. After leaving numerous voice mail messages with his family and friends, using phone numbers that were located in the car, the complainant, who was visiting friends, called me back in the morning as I was heading into court and he wants to go forward with the prosecution. The case was "Papered" with the attorneys and Mr. Teal is being held in jail pending a detention hearing on 8/29/07. I also asked for a stay-away order for most of PSA 307.

Most of the Theft from auto suspects target out of state vehicles because it is very difficult for the police to locate the owner before the case has to be papered. In this case, the owner made himself a very easy target by leaving his I-pod, two large CD cases, 2 suits and other assorted items out in plain view inside his vehicle. Please remind your friends when visiting to make sure all items of value are removed from the vehicle or at least placed out of sight and into the trunk.

Major thanks go out to both Officer Edwards and Officer Zabavsky!

March 2007 ANC Wrap-Up: Crime Down in PSA;

At last night's ANC 2F meeting, Sgt. Emmerman reported that crime in PSA 307 was way down from January to February. Specifically, there was a 51% reduction in overall crime, with a mere two robberies reported. Furthermore, an astounding 23 arrests were made on prostitution and related offenses, and a similar number of arrests were made in the red-light hot-zone south of L Street. (The exact numbers weren't available because that area is in the First District.)

The Sergeant also showed us a crime map highlighting the occurrences of Theft-from-Auto in our neighborhood. There were blotches of light shading throughout the area, but M Street from 10th to 13th were a disturbing, deep red. That certainly jives with my own personal observations. Good news, though! On February 21st, a thief was apprehended red handed on the 1300 block of Massachusetts Avenue - climbing out of the vehicle! These guys tend to be one-man crime waves, so hopefully we'll see a major down-tick next month. And if you're one of the unlucky car owners, please drop a note to the Committee on Crime and Public Safety. They would love for you to allocute against this guy! The CCPS is also talking about setting up a neighborhood watch in Theft-from-Auto hot zones.

In other business, the clubs on K Street are requesting that DDOT look into removing the parking restrictions. These restrictions were put in place as anti-prostitution measures, back in the mid-90s, and they want the parking for club-goers. There was some minor debate as to whether or not the clubs there are enough of a deterrent against prostitution, but the issue is going to be discussed. Prostitution is a hot topic here in Logan; so if any of you feel strongly, please contact your commissioner with your opinions.

Chris Zeeman from DDOT stopped by to give an update on road work in the neighborhood. He seemed a bit nervous, especially when Helen nailed him on the long-overdue, long-promised stop light at 11th and O. He promised to find out. Hold his feet in the fire, Helen!

Joe Martin, our new Neighborhood Services Coordinator, is asking for help in compiling a report of any problems you have with getting services from the city. Specifically, if you call 727-1000 or put in a service request on the web, and nothing gets done, drop him a line.

In ABRA matters, Whole Foods request for amendment to their voluntary was modified from a complete removal of the ban on singles to a ban on singles of less than or equal to sixteen ounces. This would bring their agreement into accordance with the stated policies of the ANC. Furthermore, it seems that Whole Foods ban is more restrictive than any other agreement in the neighborhood. Finally, talk of a price floor was dismissed outright as classist, which was the original argument against simply lifting the ban.

And then I had to leave. So I missed some of the meeting. If anyone was there for the rest and would like to add on, please do so in the comments.