Lovick, Reardon, Cooper bring ‘Dr. Phil’ show to seniors

Published 6:01 pm Thursday, February 21, 2008

With sharp-creased pants and an imposing new uniform, newly elected Snohomish County Sheriff John Lovick spent the morning of his 42nd day in office in Edmonds introducing himself and answering questions.

“We want to be the best friend to the good people in this community, and we want to be the worst enemies of the bad guys,” he said Feb. 12.

Lovick spoke as part of a Town Hall meeting at the South County Senior Center that also featured County Executive Aaron Reardon, newly elected County Councilman Mike Cooper, and a host of county and city officials.

The meeting was largely informal, with the politicians’ opening statements followed by a question-and-answer period for the largely senior citizen crowd.

Reardon called the afternoon gathering “our own little version of a Dr. Phil show.”

Identity theft and residential burglaries featured prominently in the question period.

Both are growing problems, the officials said, and neither has an easy solution.

Lovick suggested citizens get locking mailboxes to avoid mail theft.

“If we are going to be serious about identity theft and preventing mail from being stolen, you have to get a locking mailbox,” he said.

Edmonds police chief Al Compaan, himself a victim of identity theft in the past, said it was a growing and frustrating problem locally.

Citizens should not send mail with outgoing checks, and should consider getting post office boxes for their incoming mail, he said.

Residential burglaries have also been a growing concern among some citizens, said resident Bob Brown. The police department’s blotter has been full of burglary notices, he said.

In September, for instance, Edmonds police broke up a criminal ring that had sent burglary rates in Edmonds through the roof.

At least $30,000 in property was recovered from the Edmonds home that allegedly served as the group’s headquarters, police said at the time.

For residents, preventing burglaries is about securing homes and meeting neighbors, the officials said.

“You have to do everything you can do make your home a hard target,” Lovick said. “But we are going to have to get back to basics and work together as a community.”

Edmonds crime prevention officer Robin Heslop said the city has about 160 neighborhood block watch programs, and is trying to encourage those as community crime fighting techniques.

While the county doesn’t have any resources to directly encourage the block watches, it is working to build partnerships between the sheriff’s office and city police departments, Lovick said.

The county has never restored the three crime prevention officers it cut from the sheriff’s department many years ago, Reardon said.

Still, officials are working on Broken Windows-like policies that crack down and discourage illegal camping and graffiti, Reardon said.

“Our goal is to clean this community up and to keep it safe,” Reardon said. “When average people stop walking through the parks and streets because they are afraid, guess who ends up walking there? The people Sheriff Lovick ends up having to put behind bars.”