Edgewater Police Report: 10/15-11/11/2017

From Edgewater Police Chief John Mackey:

NEWS RELEASE
10/15 – 11/11/2017

Another Auto Theft Arrest:

On 11-09-2017 at about 1220 hours, Officer Brink was on patrol when he observed a female, later identified as Kxx Fxx, sorting through clothing in the trunk of a blue Honda Accord in the parking lot of King Soopers. Officer Brink observed a male party, later identified as James Thorpe, in the driver’s seat of the vehicle. KF was looking around the parking lot when any vehicles would pass by her. Thorpe appeared to be changing clothes and was looking around while he did so. They appeared to be nervous.

The Honda was parked facing north in the parking lot halfway up the parking aisle directly in front of the store. Officer Brink pulled his patrol vehicle one aisle to the south and faced north to watch the two subjects. Officer Brink observed Thorpe get out of the driver’s seat and KF closed the trunk. Officer Brink was able to observe the license plate, Nebraska 21XXX. Officer Brink cleared the plate utilizing his in-car computer. The license plate showed as a stolen vehicle out of Minatare PD Nebraska. As Officer Brink was reading the stolen vehicle information, Thorpe started the vehicle and backed out of his parking spot and drove west into the Target parking lot. Officer Brink pulled in behind the Honda as Thorpe and KF were exiting the vehicle. Officer Brink identified himself and deployed his duty sidearm. Officer Brink told them both, “Don’t move, put your hands up”. They complied. Officer Brink called out to dispatch that he had two at gun point, and then ordered both of them to the ground and they complied. Officer Brink remained in this position until other officers arrived on scene. Officer C Slaven, Officer R Palmer from the Edgewater Police Department and Officer M McElroy from the Mountain View Police Department arrived on scene and assisted in the arrest of both KF and Thorpe.

This is Officer Brink’s second occupied steal arrest in the past month. Officer Brink utilized excellent decision making and tactics on both of these arrests and took career criminals off of the street. James Thorpe had been imprisoned in Nebraska for Aggravated Robbery for five years and had been released within the last month, only to steal a Nebraskan’s Honda Accord and head to Colorado.

Want to make your neighborhood safer?

The Edgewater Police Department’s Nextdoor Beat Cop Program was selected as one of the top 7 programs in the United States by the Nextdoor selection team for 2017. If you’re concerned about crime in your neighborhood there is no better free program available to us than Neighborhood Watch. Neighborhood Watch coordination is nothing more than getting to know your neighbors and passing along information that the police department provides to you about the calls for service in your specific neighborhood.

Please consider inviting your neighbors to participate in Nextdoor Edgewater and contacting our Neighborhood Watch Coordinator Lorenzo – volunteers@edgewaterpd.com  to get more information on Neighborhood Watch and making your neighborhood safer. Working together we can make a difference in deterring crime – thank you!

Calls for Service

911 Emergency Calls 30 Year to date 336
Welfare Checks 12 Year to date 169
Alarm Calls 9 Year to date 156
Calls this period 732 Year to date 8,823

Thank you neighbors for notifying our dispatch center at 303-271-0211 for the many calls and for our Edgewater Officers for their fine work!

Traffic Statistics

Number of Traffic stops this period 206
Number of Traffic stops year to date 2,414

DUI’s

Not available as of time of this report

Arrest Statistics

Arrests for October 49 Arrests year to date 362

Stolen Vehicles

Honda Civics and Honda Accords years 2010 and older account for almost half of our stolen vehicles in metro Denver. The Edgewater Police Department still has a few Auto Theft Prevention “Clubs” that we would like to give away to any Edgewater resident that owns either an older Honda Accord or Civic. Please call Nancy Maldonado at 720-763-3013 if you’re interested in a free “Club” – we have a limited quantity.

We had two stolen vehicles this reporting period and our officers recovered five stolen vehicles this reporting period.

Radar Trailer

Volunteer Frank Kyper will be placing the radar trailer in in the 6000 block of W. 26th Ave. this week. If you are interested in having the radar trailer put in your neighborhood, please contact the Police Volunteer Line – Volunteers@Edgewaterpd.com If you’re interested in assisting with traffic speed control in your community we are in need of additional volunteers for this program – please contact Frank Kyper at the Volunteer email address listed.

Nextdoor and Neighborhood Watch are Growing!

Our tremendous volunteers, Pauline York and Lorenzo Rendon have done an exceptional job with our Neighborhood Watch Program. Pauline has identified several Block Captains and Lorenzo has spoken to many of you and is arranging block meetings. As we begin to identify and sign our Neighborhood Watch Blocks, we will also begin the process of comparing crime statistics in Watch Blocks compared to all other blocks. The NW program has historically been extremely successful in deterring crime, and I’m certain it will do the same for Edgewater. Our Edgewater Police Department Volunteers are researching methods to increase our Neighborhood Watch participation and participation in Nextdoor Edgewater. Both of these programs allow us to communicate more efficiently with residents for civic events and crime prevention purposes. Please consider inviting your neighbors to participate in Nextdoor Edgewater and contacting our Neighborhood Watch Coordinator Lorenzo – volunteers@edgewaterpd.com  to get more information on making your neighborhood safer.

Thank You Notes from Neighbors – Kudo’s

Great Auto Theft Arrest! – see above.

We received a telephone call regarding Corporal Nesbitt and Officer Robenalt for their assisting a lady with a flat tire. The woman indicated she was trying to find someone to fix her flat when the officers pulled up and changed her flat for her. She indicated that they were “wonderful, polite police officers and it’s nice to know they’re out there!”.

Thank you to our outstanding police volunteers, Pauline York, Frank Kyper, Lorenzo Rendon, Dave Suter, and Joel Newton for the countless hours they are contributing to making our community and city a safer place to live, work and play! Chief Mackey

Neighbor’s notes and “Kudo’s” are placed in the lobby of the police station and placed in the respective officer’s personnel files – thanks for sharing!

Upcoming Community Events:

November 23 City Offices Closed
November 30 Fall Leaf Pick Up
December 7 City Council Meeting
December 8 Holiday Lighting Ceremony

Joel Newton

Joel has been a resident of Edgewater, Colorado with his family since 2012. He is the Executive Director of local education nonprofit Edgewater Collective and Editor of the Edgewater Echo.