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HomeMy WebLinkAbout12-03-12 TC Special Meeting documents To: Mayor Wheat and Town Councilmembers Tom Brymer, Town Manager From: Amanda DeGan, Assistant to the Town Manager Date: November 30, 2012 In advance of the special Town Council meeting set for Monday evening, I have attached or included the following documents which may be pertinent to the discussion: • Glenwyck HOA agenda from Tuesday evening • Crime prevention tips provided from the Keller Police Department • Keller Police Services Contract • Notification timeline for burglaries • Questions and statements from HOA meeting The gathering held by the HOA was well attended, with over 45 residents present and provided good information to the community. Several Town of Westlake staff members were on-hand, as well as Lieutenants Tommy Simmons and Brenda Slovak from the police department. Mr. Mike Keeley, president of the Glenwyck HOA conducted the meeting and provided a comprehensive update of the facts that were available as of that night. The Lieutenants’ and Town Staff also fielded multiple questions from the audience. Attached, you will find a copy of the crime prevention tips that were distributed to attendees and which have been sent out via the Westlake Wire to our entire community. The tip sheet contains a comprehensive set of contact numbers and encourages residents to contact Keller PD to report ANY suspicious behavior. The final attachment contains a listing of the various questions and statements made by residents at the HOA meeting on Tuesday evening. You will notice it is in ‘rough’ format as it was compiled from notes I made as individuals were speaking. The following chart contains the statistics we have been provided from the police department and a brief analysis/response based on a few questions that were asked at the HOA meeting. Glenwyck Farms and Vaquero Burglary Time Line The table indicates that the first call was received in the dispatch office at approximately 08:21 a.m. on Friday. We were notified by email of this burglary by Chief Hafner later that same morning. The next two notifications were called in late that same Friday evening, at 10:13 and 11:02 p.m. Further email notice was provided to town staff Saturday morning concerning these two events. A question that was raised at the HOA meeting concerned the information that three (3) burglaries occurred in Vaquero on Thursday and the remaining seven (7) transpired on Friday in Glenwyck Farms. After further review of the dispatch records, it is difficult if not impossible to pinpoint the exact time of each burglary and assign it to a neighborhood due to the lack of video evidence and alarm responses. The video evidence that does exist (and has been reviewed) indicates that the police department had no definitive method to determine if all three burglaries occurred in Vaquero on Thursday evening. The initial call was reported the Friday morning after Thanksgiving, however subsequent notifications of the thefts were not given until late Friday evening. This sequence of events would not have allowed for the issuance of an email alert to our Glenwyck residents on Friday afternoon. Another area of concern has been the allocation of resources and the question of whether or not we have enough officers assigned to our community. As you can see by the police contract, we are ‘assigned’ a set number of officers on a full-time basis in Westlake. However, when an event such as this occurs the entire police department ADDRESS DATE NOTIFIED TIME NOTIFIED RESIDENTIAL AREA 1109 Post Oak Place 11/23/12 8:21 am Vaquero 1622 Fair Oaks Ct 11/23/12 10:13 pm Glenwyck 1623 Fair Oaks Ct 11/23/12 11:02 pm Glenwyck 1804 Copperfield Ct 11/24/12 10:38 am Glenwyck 1605 Sleepy Hollow Ct 11/24/12 11:32 am Glenwyck 1823 Broken Bend Dr 11/24/12 3:36 pm Glenwyck 1817 Broken Bend Dr 11/24/12 3:36 pm Glenwyck 2204 Vaquero Estates Blvd 11/25/12 8:39 am Vaquero 1110 Post Oak Place 11/25/12 12:44 pm Vaquero 1802 Millstream Ct 11/25/12 1:51 pm Glenwyck staff may be allocated to solve crimes or process an accident scene. We are not limited to only the number of police officers assigned in our contract. Several other questions were asked during the meeting, which may require Council review, such as: • Installation of lighting and/or fencing in the Glenwyck park • Hiring of additional officers for patrol • Camera use in the park and along trails • Communication and response efforts As to the question of additional patrol and/or police officers in Westlake, we had previously planned a review of our officer allocation according to the call volume and response to service load we experience on an average basis. For instance, if the majority of our police related calls were occurring from 10:00 p.m. until 1:00 a.m., then we would adjust the patrol allocation for the maximum amount of coverage during these time periods. According to our contract, we currently have 5 patrol officers working the north Keller and Westlake regions along with 2 motorcycle officers for traffic enforcement. Staff will be reviewing these assignments and updating Council as needed. The installation of additional security measures in the park should be reviewed in conjunction with our community wide efforts in order to ensure a comprehensive response to crime prevention. Additional camera and lighting placement may be effective in the park and along the various trail paths connecting Terra Bella down to the Academy. The decisions made in response to this event have the propensity to change our current and future development standards for all commercial and residential areas. Staff has suggested an initial plan of action to form a group of representatives from the Glenwyck and Vaquero HOA’s, the police department and Town staff members to help formulate a response to the concerns raised by our residents in light of the recent burglaries. The invitation to participate has also been extended to the HOA’s and/or a representative of all our subdivisions. The goal is to create a ‘task force’ to review the suggested security measures from the police department, determine the applicable use of new technology in our community and focus effective methods of holistic communication efforts. Preliminary steps have already been taken, as some HOA management staff members have agreed to help increase our communication outreach through a ‘shared’ email listing of residents. Page 1 of 2 Important Crime Prevention Tips to remember for your safety! During this holiday season, we would like to remind our Westlake residents about the importance of safety precautions that can help deter criminal activity in our community at any time; but certainly, while many homeowners may be away. Many burglaries occur with the use of forced entry while homeowners are out of town. This type of crime can cause emotional pain and be tough to deal with in any given situation. In an effort to keep you informed, below are several crime prevention tips/strategies that we have received from our community’s police, the Keller Police Department. We thank them for their hard work and devoted service to Westlake! • When going out of town for any time period, please fill out a vacation house watch check form with the Keller Police Department by calling 817-743-4522 or stop by the KPD station. This takes very little time and officers will stop by to check your home while you are away; and includes: windows, doors, vehicles on premises and suspicious activity. • If you are going out of town, have a trusted neighbor or friend pick-up newspapers and the mail (unless you have it set-up for "hold' at the post office), water your plants, turn on lights, leave on a radio and tend to the pets. This helps give your home the "lived-in" appearance. The more often your neighbor can stop by, the better. • Have interior lights set on timers to turn on and off during your absence. • Set your alarm system, each time you leave your home. If you do not have an alarm, consider installing a system and/or upgrade your current alarm system. Many homeowners' will have the basic monitoring system with contacts on all moveable windows and doors that lead to the outside of the home. If a burglar breaks the glass on a non-moveable window and enters through this window, the alarm will not detect the intrusion. Therefore, upgrade the alarm system by adding glass breakage and/or motion detectors to also activate an alarm. Additionally, have your security system transmit the alarm wirelessly- either in place of, or in addition to, the wired alarm transmission to ensure a signal is sent to the alarm company in case of cut telephone lines. • Test your alarm system periodically, specifically before you go on any trips. • Closed Caption TV cameras set-up in and around the house can definitely be a deterrent to thieves and helps law enforcement officials should the cameras record any suspicious person. • Check your outside lights to make sure they are all working properly. Replace bulbs that are burned out and repair lights that are not working. Consider installing the standard outside lights to motion sensor lights. This helps lower the cost of an electric bill and can be a psychological deterrent for criminals. • Shut all driveway gates and lock all exterior gates. • Lock valuables in a safe and if at all possible, bolt your safe to the foundation (concrete) of your home. This makes it much more difficult for a burglar to pull and defeat the safe. Also consider wiring the safe to the security system as well. Page 2 of 2 • Keep a record of all valuables in the safe. Consider using a video recorder, cell phone recording device or other electronic device with recording capability. Keep the information in a safe place in case you are burglarized. • Call immediately if you see anything suspicious. Examples include: people or vehicles that seem out of place or that you do not recognize as a resident in your neighborhood; a person or persons walking in the neighborhood at a very late hour carrying unidentifiable objects. The list can be extensive - the end result is, we want you to notify the police department should you have a concern. 9-1-1 is a quick and easy call. Another method to help secure your home is to consider an in-home review and upgrade to your existing security system. Many residents have a good basic system that monitors doors and windows, but newer features can include the glass breakage and motion detector options that sound the alarm even if a door or window is not opened from the outside. These systems can also be customized for residents with pets to help avoid false alarms. Technology is improving as time goes on and just as you upgrade your cell phones and computers, you should consider upgrading your home security system to incorporate these latest features. If you would like for Keller PD to perform a security audit, please call our Crime Specialist Officer (& Community Relations Officer), Scott Bradburn, at 817-743-4533 for an appointment or at sbradburn@kellerpd.com. While you live in a very safe town, no community is immune from crime. Security gates and security officers at entrances can deter some intruders, but they cannot eliminate all. Rest assured that Keller PD will continue to patrol the Westlake neighborhoods (especially during holiday periods) and more effectively, perform traffic enforcement duties around your community along the roads entering and exiting Westlake, stopping suspicious persons called in by residents, and working with residents to educate them on how to "harden the targets." Working together we can make a difference! Thank you, Mark R. Hafner Thomas E. Brymer Director of Public Safety- Chief of Police Town Manager Keller Police Department Town of Westlake Website: www.kellerpd.com Website: www.westlake-tx.org mhafner@kellerpd.com tbrymer@westlake-tx.org Questions and Statements from the Audience Were all burglaries at night? Were any home attempted and not broken into? Alarm questioned from standpoint of breakage vs. motion, which is better or both? Are we interviewing for similarities? In favor of additional lighting; cameras down streets and in the park area; gating doesn’t want to lose access to park due to criminals Advised that residents should take up the ‘hide-a-key’ How to get license plate camera video to the police? Why is it taking so l ong to review? Were crimes similar to July break-ins? Similarities in cases from July Concerned about data set and correlation of info and interviews of affected families? Vehicles involved – any more info? Also asked how to not allow tailgating of another vehicle into the gate? Why didn’t police know the other houses were broken into? 10K to security company – buying guns; taking classes to protect themselves 3M product for glass breakage – asked LT’s if it was effective? Future meetings? Concerned about code and gate access (realtor and vendor code) Reset all codes; why didn’t the police check all homes? Why didn’t the police automatically patrol the area due to the holiday? Concerned about piggy backing in gate, worried about an altercation Were police patrolling on the weekend? Thinks they walked from park to her home. Hasn’t had any contact with HOA in the eight (8) years she has lived in GW. What is the HOA’s duty for security? Why no patrol during holiday season? What has been done with $ from the dues? Upset about lack of response from Town; not just HOA response Doesn’t want collaboration to be lack of activity Why wasn’t the Mayor and Council there at the meeting? Park must have lights; motion sensor lights What about number of police patrol? Is it adequate; Says pleased with officer response time from KPD Favors small HOA; doesn’t expect them to protect from all levels; concerned about them being responsible for tailgating enforcement; concerned about kids and interested in guard; lighting Did the park play a role in this? What about alarm company – vendors are they suspects or shared commonalities. What was the heads up between Vaquero vs. Glenwyck Why didn’t the town know and tell them (about Vaquero) In favor of surveillance at front gate. Set hours in park – people in golf cart in parks to late at night; what is current threat level? Theft on the job sites are 99% from within; WL will always be a target What is being done in other cities? Is this a ring? Wants HOA to keep in mind police recommendations to increase security.