Historical November–December 2005 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
The Skinker-DeBaliviere Community Council and interested residents recently revived the SDCC Security Committee, which had become inactive.
In an effort to increase communication in the neighborhood regarding security issues, the committee will be sending a regular email reporting important incidents that occur in Skinker-DeBaliviere as well as “security tips” and other information about, and what you can do to help deter, crime in our neighborhood.
Please also look for the article on security awareness & precautions in this issue of the Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere.
If you are interested in helping out with the Security Committee’s work, contact SDCC at 862-5122. HELPING TO PREVENT & REPORT: The key thing is to be alert and observant, report even just suspicious people/activity by calling 911. Don’t just report crime incidents; see two incidents and the good results from calls to 911 below. That information, after evaluation by the 911 staff, is shared with the police on patrol, who are alerted to look for the described people/activity even if it has moved from your block to another. “We want citizens to call us whenever they see activity or people that appear out of place. No call is unimportant.” Capt. Moran, 7th District. PERSPECTIVE: To put the below in perspective, according to the police, overall reported crime in Skinker DeBaliviere is down from last year, and the incidents reported below are not occurring more frequently here, they are happening all over. BURGLARIES: Wednesday, 10/19, a home at 61xx Westminster was burglarized.
A neighbor called 911 after they saw a person run from the home and get into a green SUV, and obtained/reported the license plate number!
This license number enabled the police to trace it to a group of people that had been burglarizing several homes in south St. Louis.
They were transferring the license plate from vehicle to vehicle.
The police tracked the car to an address in the 7th District, where surveillance yielded two arrests , and the recovery of several stolen items, including from the Westminster and a Dogtown burglary, and numerous pawn shop receipts.
They are responsible for over 25 burglaries in south city, and at least two so far in District 7.
The group is a wife, husband, and nephew, i.e. a family enterprise.
The police expect to identify these suspects as responsible for more burglaries.
There have been about 6 burglaries in Skinker-DeBaliviere since September 1, as above, and on 61xx Kingsbury Thu. 10/6, during the day (broken front window).
Also on 62xx Waterman, 9/5 Mon. daytime, and 59xx Kingsbury, Tue. night, 10/4, the only two where residents were home.
On Waterman, the residents were home but left their front door unlocked, the burglar came in & went upstairs, but was only noticed on his way out.
On Kingsbury, the burglar unscrewed the rear porch light, pried open the back door, took items on the first floor, but left immediately after seeing the residents who’d been sleeping on the 2nd floor.
A different incident occurred in the Central West End, where a home in 44xx Westminster was entered, Mon. 10/17 at night, while people were home.
A nearby resident later called 911, reporting that someone had jumped their fence. Because of this prowler call police were in the area, and that led to the capture of the above burglar in the 39xx block of Delmar after a foot pursuit.
The suspect lives in 53xx Pershing, and is believed responsible for at least 7 burglaries in the CWE and possibly elsewhere in the 7th District.
His mode of operation was to break into homes while people were asleep. HOLDUP: On Fri. 10/14, at about 2 a.m., four Washington U. students were held up (a pistol was shown) walking along Skinker north of McPherson.
They handed over wallets & a cell phone, but no one was physically hurt. Incidents in the City are reported on the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department “Safe City crime map” at: http://64.218.68.50/stlouis/newslmpd/viewer.htm I don’t know what the time lag is between the occurrence / reporting of a crime and its inclusion on the crime map.
It sometimes takes several minutes to load the map, especially if you have a dialup connection. Incidents are also reported on the Washington U. police department web site at: http://police.wustl.edu/crimealerts.html; the list is in chronological order and goes back about two years. Again, though crime is somewhat down, even one occurrence is one too many.
We must continue to take precautions, keep an eye out for and report suspicious activities to the police by calling 911.
With regard to some precautions, the Washington University police department offers some crime prevention tips at: http://police.wustl.edu/crimeprevention.html.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, November–December 2005.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times2005_11.pdf, printed page(s) 4; PDF page(s) 4.
