Pemberton Heights Neighborhood Association

Jeffrey L Minch
Security Program Coordinator
Vice President, PHNA Board
512-656-1383 cell
jminch@littlefield.com

The Security Committee met last Thursday and had an excellent discussion on the Security Program.

You will recall that we have two bodies:

1. The Security Committee, composed of ten individuals who volunteered via the website blog post of 18 January 2012.
2. The Security Program Working Group which is a larger group and is open to membership by any member of the PHNA.  We currently have a list of approximately twenty five interested neighbors.

Carla Hatler, Brian Bailey, Jinous Rouhani, Meg & Kelly Shaw, Fred Robinson, Polly Swain and Laura Sharp were in attendance.

We discussed the following:

1. The 2011 Annual Report of the Security Program which included 237 investors with a total of $50,485 being raised and an average investment of $213.
2. A brief history of the Security Program as well as the makeup of the Security Committee and the Security Program Working Group.
3. The Away From Home List; and
4. Some exploratory initiatives.

The exploratory initiatives include the following:

1. An automobile decal program to identify PHNA cars in order to facilitate Police efficiency in looking for suspicious cars and cars being used in the perpetration of a crime.
2. A signage program in which we would reinstate the signs at the neighborhood triangles.  There was some discussion that subject to our existing license agreements we had authority to place these signs.
   You may not be aware but a member of our neighborhood has vehemently objected to the placement of these signs on public right of way to the extent of having notified the City of Austin’s sign enforcement authority with an eye toward informing of them when the signs were out so that they could write a violation for me personally.  Not very nice nor very neighborly.
3. The development of a comprehensive security checklist suggesting improvements and practices to be initiated to enhance physical security of neighborhood homes;
4. An experiment to determine the feasibility and practicality of installing cameras — TCPIP Internet cameras — at strategic locations to facilitate identification of vehicles and people engaged in bad acts.

It is thought that ten cameras would cover the entire neighborhood and this experiment would involve only a single installation to work out the administrative and operational bugs with an eye toward testing the feasibility of this initiative.

Last, we will be starting our CY 2012 fundraising campaign in the month of April.

Please comment below and please contact me to answer any questions.  Thanks.

Jeffrey L Minch
Security Program Coordinator
PHNA Board Vice President
jminch@littlefield.com
512-656-1383 cell

About ten days ago, we had a rash of car break-ins in Pemberton Heights.  There were six such incidents reportedl between midnight and 3:00 AM.

What is gratifying is that nothing was apparently taken because there was nothing in the cars to be taken.  This indicates real progress on our part as we are ensuring that there is no low hanging fruit for the crooks to pluck.

In correspondence with our Austin Police Department District Representative, we were provided the following list of incidents, none of which were in our neighborhood.

1. “Burglary of Vehicle-1504 Windsor – suitcase left on the back seat
2. Auto theft-615 Oakland – car was taken out of the drive way, no glass on the driveway,  there was a bag in the front, possibly the spare key was in the console.
3. Burglary of Vehicle-702 Oakland – no signs of forced entry.  Heard dog barking, went outside and saw interior light on and door open.  Resident shut the door and then opened it and noticed that the glove box had been gone through.
4. Burglary of Vehicle-1011 W 5th St – window was broken and radar detector was taken
5. Burglary of Vehicle-1004 Elm St – HTC EVO was left in the car and taken.  Window was broken out.
6. Burglary of Vehicle-1718 Palma Plaza – Laptop left in car and taken.  Window was broken out.
7. Burglary of Vehicle-1611 W 5th St – Large cosmetics bag with $500 worth of cosmetics taken from car
8. Burglary of Vehicle-1100 Kingsbury – Two purses containing credit cards (one of which was used by the suspect), cash and other stuff, were left in the car and taken.
9. Burglary of Vehicle-300 n Lamar – Wallet with four credit cards and an IPOD left in car and stolen.
10. Burglary of Vehicle-806 Theresa – Digital camera was left in car and taken.  No signs of forced entry into vehicle.”

The common denominator is the presence of “loot” for the criminals to steal.

Here are some common sense rules pertaining to safeguarding your cars:

• Park your cars under a light and as close to your house as possible.  Cars are most vulnerable on the street or at the end of your driveway.  I have read that parking a car with the front facing the street substantially diminishes the probability of being broken into.  Who knows?
• Lock your car and enable the alarm.
• Take all valuables out of your car.  No phones, tablets, laptops, GPS’s or digital cameras.  No guns, cosmetics or other valuables.
• Keep your car keys with the panic button next to your bed when you go to bed at night.  If you hear something, activate the panic alarm.
• Be very, very careful going out to inspect your car after dark as a criminal may be trying to lure you out and pounce on you.  Take a flashlight with you and a spouse or a Rottweiler.

Be safe and vigilant.

I am often asked for details about specific crimes committed in our neighborhood and I usually resort to contacting our Patrol Officers who are usually able to obtain the information everyone wants to know.

There are several websites which will provide crime information on our neighborhood.  The three following I know work but they do not provide the degree of detail one would like as it relates to the details of the crime itself.  The City of Austin police incident report provides a bit more info than the others.

http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/GIS/crimeviewer/CrimeReportSearch.html?

Spotcrime.com

If you know of any more or more detailed sites, please let me know and I will publicize them.

Stay vigilant and safe out there.

Happy New Year to all and I hope that 2012 is a safe year for the entire neighborhood.  2011 was an “interesting year with a variety of crime in our neighborhood and the surrounding neighborhoods.  The crime is not going away by itself.  It may be increasing.  We are evaluating other strategies to combat crime in Pemberton Heights.

There has recently been a bit of discussion as to forming a volunteer Neighborhood Watch type patrol of the neighborhood as a complement to the patrols provided through the PHNA Security Program.

There have been such efforts in other neighborhoods and the Austin Police Department is of great assistance in organizing these efforts.

This is not a new idea and has been explored for some considerable time.  We are intimately familiar with all the neighborhood programs currently in existence.  There are some very important considerations of such a program which may be different from other neighborhoods and which may be unique to Pemberton Heights.

I do not want to color the discussion or to dampen the enthusiasm by sharing what has been previously learned but these considerations will be aired at the meeting.

Anyone who is interested in participating in a discussion of such efforts or who would like to express their interest in participating in such an effort is invited to meet at 6:30 PM on Thursday, 5 January 2012.

6:30 PM
Thursday, 5 January 2012
2501 N Lamar Blvd

The meeting will be held at 6:30 PM at 2501 N Lamar Blvd.  That’s the building with all the flags at the corner of 25^th and Lamar just across Shoal Creek from the neighborhood.

If you think you can attend, please RSVP to Nancy Adams at nadams@littlefield.com or 512-692-1711 or 512-476-5141.  If you cannot attend but are otherwise interested, please advise Nancy of that fact.

I hope to see you there and look forward to a productive discussion.