CRIMES IN PSA 202 FROM FEBRUARY 1 TO FEBRUARY 27
ROBBERY
- P/P (pick/pocket),  2/4,  unknown
BURGLARY
- 4100 Legation, house
- 4000 Warren, house
- 3800 Warren,  house
- 3700 Windom,  house, attempt
- 4800 Massachusetts,  supermarket
- 4400 Fessenden,  house
THEFT
- 4000 Brandywine,  unknown
- 5100 Wisconsin,  drug store (closed)
- 5200 Wisconsin,  restaurant
- 5300 Wisconsin,  retail store (closed)
- 5200 Western,  department store
- 5400 Western,  hospital
- 4500 40th St,  grocery store
- 4700 41st St,  construction site
- 5300 42nd Pl,  house
- 5200 44th,  unknown
- 4100 46th,  house
- 4800 46th,  house
THEFT FROM AUTO
(two in carport; rest in street)
- 4400 Albemarle
- 4300 Alton
- 4400 Alton,  attempt
- 4200 Wisconsin
- 4600 Wisconsin
- 5100 Wisconsin
- 5300 Wisconsin
- 4700 Belt
- 4700 Belt
- 4700 Belt
- 4300 Jenifer
- 5100 42nd St
- 5200 43rd St
- 5300 43rd St
- 5300 43rd St,  attempt
- 4400 45th,  attempt
- 4200 Ingomar
- 4400 Garrison
- 4400 Garrison
- 4400 Garrison
- 4400 Garrison
- 4400 Garrison
- 4500 Garrison
- 4500 Garrison
- 4200 Harrison
- 4300 Military
- 4600 49th
- 4600 49th
STOLEN AUTO
- 5300 43rd St,  street
- 4900 46th,  street
- 4200 37th,  street
- 3900 Yuma,  street
- 4400 Windom,  street
- 4900 Chesapeake
SIMPLE ASSAULT
- 4400 Sedgwick, house (closed)
- 4900 Wisconsin, street (closed)
- 5000 Wisconsin, restaurant (closed)
- 5300 Wisconsin, discount store (closed)
- 4500 40th St., bus (closed)
CPWL (carrying a pistol without a license),  3900 Windom,  street (closed)

SUMMARY: Starting January 1, 2000
Sex Abuse (non rape) 1
Robbery 9
Assault 1
Burglary 8
Theft 39
Theft From Auto 48
Stolen Auto 11
Simple Assault 6
Destruction of Property 5
Drug Possession 1
Fraud 2
Unlawful Entry Disorder 1
CPWL 1

Total: 133

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WILMA LEWIS TO SPEAK  (A reminder)

U.S. Attorney Wilma Lewis will be the guest speaker at the 2D Citizens
Advisory Council Meeting on Wednesday, March 1 at 7:00 pm at 2D, 3320 Idaho
Ave. (At Newark St). If you have any questions about either Community
Prosecution or her proposed bill on marijuana, this is a good time to ask.
 

WHEN YOU SEND ME A QUESTION ABOUT CRIME

When I receive comments or questions about specific crimes or types of crimes
in the 'Hood, I am forwarding them to Commander Newsham, Sgt. Ladson, and one
or two of  the U.S. Attorneys involved with 2D -- KS

----------
From:   dlouda@apca.org (Dale Louda)
Is there nothing that can be done to stop the robberies at the Super Fresh?
Seems like every crime listing has a robbery taking place there. Is it
indeed a frequent target or does it just seem that way?

----------
From:   deanna@madwolftech.com:
Question:  We're interested in whether crimes in the 'hood have increased
over the
past year, particularly as the commercial real estate in Friendship Heights
continues to grow and prosper.  In other words, has the new commercial real
estate in the area (Borders, Linens, Theaters, Bauer) brought in more crime
to the residential streets?  Can you easily derive this information?

My Answer -- KS :   Deanna, this is a very interesting question, and one that
I have struggled with. I will forward it to Sgt. Ladson and Commander
Newsham. Perhaps they can get their crime analysis guru to look at it.

My sense of things is that there is a real tradeoff here.  On the one hand,
if you have more people and more goods (prey and things worth stealing) you
will attract more predators. On the other hand, the stores have dramatically
increased their security (guards all over the place) which means that more
thieves are being caught and it is a less attractive area for a mugger or
thief from the standpoint of encountering more police and more security
guards.  It's just possible that it breaks even.

I personally feel safer when there are more people on the street. I like
sidewalk restaurants and a lot of activity throughout the day, including at
night.

I'll pass this on and see what kind of answer we get.
 

Question:   Do you think that this is so for the residential
areas, off of Wisconsin, also?  The several car break-ins that occurred one
week ago on Garrison St., as well as other thefts on and around our block
have us concerned.  Police response doesn't seem to be great (over 24 hours
to respond to one call that we know of).  Is there some link between this
vandalism and the commercial area nearby?

My Answer -- KS:    The pattern seems to be that most of the criminal
activity occurs along Wisconsin and about one block in on either side. After
that, it tends to taper down, the further you get away from the main avenue
where all the people, stores, public transportation, etc are.

We also have a significant population of vagrants who have nothing to do all
day but hang around and get into mischief.  There is also a store at
Tenleytown that buys Compact Disks for about $2 a pop, no questions asked.

People forget or refuse to accept the fact that there are people who cruise
and walk through the 'Hood, looking into cars and checking to see if house
and garage doors are locked. Often they are not locked and often people leave
items of "value" e.g. CDs visible in their cars.

I think these are all contributors.

Regarding the lack of police response, I suggest you contact Commander
Newsham about that. He can be reached on 282-0042 or at the e-mail address:
MPDC2DCMDR@aol.com
 

TELEVISION
From:   pboyce@aas.org (Peter B. Boyce)
Getting the local channels on 90-93 actually assumes that you have
Starpower as your TV cable supplier. If you don't have cable, then it will
cost you some money to get the cable.

Also, probably your TV set is an older one which doesn't have the
capability to tune in the upper channels (we have one of those, too). If
you actually sign on to Starpower, you will have to get a set top box (at a
couple of extra dollars per month, of course) which will give you access to
all the channels. We find their box with its remote control to be a bit
cumbersome to use, but it does give you the capability to view the TV
schedule for any time of the day by blocks of channels which fit on your
screen. You control the scrolling from the remote, so that part is good.

If you don't have cable now, this will cost you some  money. Starpower does
offer bundled long distance service at 7 cents per minute anywhere, all day
with no monthly charge. We find the service to be good. With the bundle,
the basic cable is about $27 per month, which is cheaper than District
Cable, and I see no down side to getting the Starpower long distance
service. Our long distance bills have declined since we got this plan.

I have no connection with Starpower, I just like the idea of competition --
especially when you can get a better signal from them. As noted before,
they don't carry News Channel 8 and MSNBC. On the other hand, they do carry
the History Channel and NASA Select, and a number of other channels not
offered by District Cablevision.