School, deputies partner to reduce crime

Published 11:00 pm Thursday, June 21, 2007

EVERETT – They found the crooks and along the way they discovered strong allies.

Some of their biggest support, Snohomish County sheriff’s deputies say, came from students and teachers at Mariner High School.

For a year, deputies have focused extra attention on fighting crime in a chunk of unincorporated south Everett.

The targeted section, just about one square mile, was considered one of the highest crime areas that deputies patrolled.

The high school, located in the middle of the trouble zone, was often connected to problems – if only by proximity.

Deputies launched Operation Clean Sweep in the spring of 2006. They set out to saturate the neighborhood to reduce crime, drive out gang members and get to know the neighbors.

Deputies, business owners and people who live and work in the area say they have noticed a difference.

“Before Operation Clean Sweep we were reactive. Something would happen and deputies would flood the area,” sheriff’s Sgt. Mike Thompson said. “We became proactive and we took the fight to the crooks.”

A year later serious crimes are down slightly – a drop of about 6 percent from the previous year.

The biggest change, however, is the partnerships deputies have built with the people who live, work and have children attending area schools, Sheriff Rick Bart said.

“That shows me it was very successful,” he said.

The area targeted during Clean Sweep is from 112th Street SE to 128th Street SE and between Highway 99 and I-5. It is the crossroads of south Everett and Mukilteo.

It is laced with busy streets and dotted with small businesses, shopping centers and large apartment complexes.

Managers at Eagle’s Landing Apartments on Eighth Avenue W. worked with sheriff’s deputies to reduce crime on their property.

They’ve hired off-duty deputies to patrol the complex. They’ve also met with tenants to talk about crime prevention, said Amy Clemons, an assistant manager at the complex.

“I think in general there aren’t as many problems in the neighborhood. The most serious crimes are car break-ins,” she said.

The area is far from being crime-free. There is still a gang problem, Bart said, adding that more work remains to fix problems.

The sheriff’s office only planned to keep the Clean Sweep extra patrols in the neighborhood for a year.

Even though that phase of the operation is over, Bart said he hopes there will be no end to the partnerships the sheriff’s office built with business owners, apartment managers and the schools.

“We still have issues there and will as long as we have gangs and wannabes. We’re very aware of that and we’ll deal with it as we can,” Bart said. “We don’t want to abandon the community down there.”

The partnership with people at Mariner High School has proved to be particularly powerful, deputies said.

As part of the operation, sheriff’s deputy Beau Beckner was assigned to work out of the high school.

Mariner, along with Voyager Middle and Discovery Elementary, are in the heart of the area.

The sheriff assigned Beckner to the high school because of a surge in gang activity in the neighborhood.

Deputies had seen a rise in graffiti and gangs recruiting new members out of the schools. Some students also were seen associating with gangs.

“The reality was when I first started in October, the parking lots were like cruise strips after school,” Beckner said. “They would drive through with their music blasting and flying their bandanas.”

Beckner worked with school administrators to make it clear troublemakers aren’t welcome at Mariner.

“They don’t come here anymore,” Beckner said.

He’s also been able to learn what is happening in the surrounding community, particularly who may be engaged in criminal behavior. He hears about fights brewing among students at Mariner and other schools before they start, Beckner said.

The Mukilteo School District has been impressed with the partnership.

The district’s budget for next year, expected to be voted on next week, includes money to keep Beckner at Mariner, district spokesman Andy Muntz said.

“I think the biggest positive is he has bridged the gap between our community and the sheriff’s office,” Mariner principal Brent Kline said. “He has been a great role model.”

Junior Mathew Lane, 16, said he didn’t believe the school needed a resource officer and he hasn’t noticed any difference at school since the deputy came.

“I don’t think much has changed, but it doesn’t hurt to have him here. It’s one more person we can talk to,” Lane said.

Lane and his classmates have noticed other changes at Mariner.

As the sheriff’s office pushed forward with its operation, Mariner students and teachers have been motivated to improve their community, too, Kline said.

“I believe a lot of it was sparked by Operation Clean Sweep,” he said. “They were identifying something going on that needed to be improved. Looking at the map of the area, we’re right in the middle.”

Students took on various projects to make lasting changes in the neighborhood, Kline said.

They started up a group to get a community center or library built in that part of the county. They signed up neighbors to register to vote. They met with middle school students to talk about how they could help, too.

The school is planning a community forum about crime prevention programs and other issues facing the neighborhood.

The school’s mission is to educate its students, said Sue Metzler, a social studies teacher who has taught at Mariner for 15 years. Improving the community and encouraging neighbors to make changes will only further the school’s mission, she said.

“Engaging our community to make it a safe place ultimately benefits the students,” Kline said. “It’s important we keep it going.”

Reporter Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463 or hefley@ heraldnet.com.