By
Joy Yagi
November 21, 2008
Members of the Greek community met Wednesday night with the city of Seattle crime prevention coordinator to discuss bringing the national Block Watch program to the UW.
Photo by Jennifer Au.
Senior Tim Mensing of Theta Xi created and organized the UW Greek Block Watch program, which allows fraternities and sororities to work together to build a safer neighbor-hood.
Photo by Jennifer Au.
Junior Jillian Wood of Alpha Delta Pi (second from right) discusses possible safety alert options for the greek community to use as fellow greek members (from left to right) junior Kendra Hall of Chi Omega, junior Tanya Swarts of Alpha Delta Pi, and junior Jonathan Feng of Phi Kappa Theta all listen in.
Block Watch is designed to bring neighbors together as a defense against crime. According to the city of Seattle Web site, Seattle has more than 3,800 registered block watches.
Senior Timothy Mensing from Theta Xi came up with the idea two quarters ago.
“Block Watch is a simple program designed to increase neighborhood safety and community through houses looking out for and keeping in touch with one another,” Mensing said.
At the meeting, communication was stressed. If the program is implemented, police would be called for emergencies and text messages would be sent to house representatives warning them of the potential dangers. The messages would then be recorded on the Facebook group wall, UW Greek Block Watch.
“The overall feeling of the meeting was optimistic,” he said. “It was agreed that the program would be most successful in its simplicity, knowledge and connection with other houses, and a centralized means of communication.”
Right now a pilot test is being run on Northeast 45th Street and 18th Avenue Northeast, but eventually the program will extend to all of the Greek community as well as residential houses.
“It fits exactly into what the community is kind of missing,” said Cartter Berg, from Beta Theta Pi.
However, while the Greek community has connections among houses, there is little connection to those who live in residential houses.
Connections, “whether they be Greek or non-Greek who live in residential houses to even non-students who aren’t affiliated with the University of Washington, [are] nearly non-existent,” Berg said.
But bridging the gaps is exactly what the program hopes to accomplish.
Each house will have a Block Watch representative with contact informational for representatives of all other houses. Meetings will be held on a quarterly basis where members can exchange updated contact information and discuss any worries or concerns, Berg said.
“The program is designed to be used as a communication device, its primary function: crime prevention,” Mensing said. “It can and will be used to make sure the [community] north of 45th has a dedicated, quick and easy way to communicate with one another.”
The program is supported by the UWPD, Interfraternity Council and Panhellenic.
“We fully support [Block Watch] … and will participate whenever we can,” said UWPD Assistant Chief Ralph Robinson.
Reach reporter Joy Yagi at news@dailyuw.com.
2 Comments
#1 Barb
on November 21, 2008 at 4:18 p.m.(Olympia, WA | Unverified Name)
It is good to know that our students are doing something to help in the prevention of crime. I am very much looking forward to hearing more about what the Greek community is accomplishing through this new Block
Watch program.
#2 MiketheObserver
on November 23, 2008 at 5:03 p.m.(Tacoma, WA | Unverified Name)
It's about time i hope they will be actually able to do something about the crime. Student help is not enough, the same thing happened at UCLA years ago and the police there tripled the patrols. UW needs to follow this example. Having lived in the U-district, i see rampant drug deals and all sorts of crime happen in my front yard, and the police are oblivious, or perhaps understaffed.
As most students and staff know there was a recent incident on Fri Nov 21 at 4:00pm. 4:00pm!?! When it starts happening in broad daylight it's beginning to get out of hand. Using my gumshoeing skills it appears to have happened to a foreign exchange student.
Evidence: Items taken, pre-paid cellular phone, and $500 in cash. Not that this is relevant i just wanted to point it out, i just figured the only people that i knew that carried that much cash and a pre-paid would be an exchange student.
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