Cops Groups Working To Keep Crime In Check

Karen Tubac decided her neighborhood wasn’t going to become a better place if she waited for other people to solve all its problems.

She volunteered for the COPS Southeast organization and now is president of the 2-year-old neighborhood crime-fighting group.

“I felt like I should quit complaining and do something,” Tubac said.

She heads nearly 100 volunteers who are helping Spokane police keep the South Hill safe from crime. They take crime reports, patrol neighborhoods at night, eliminate graffiti and prevent problems such as drug dealing or burglaries from escalating.

The group also works with other anti-crime programs such as the Block Watch organization, where neighbors band together to watch each other’s homes.

COPS Southeast is one of the most active neighborhood police groups in the city. It operates a police substation at 29th and Regal.

Office hours are 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

A few miles away, a smaller group of volunteers runs the COPS Haven organization at Fifth and Haven in the East Central neighborhood.

While COPS Haven has only about 25 volunteers, its work parallels that of its bigger neighbor to the south.

Both groups are seeking more volunteers.

Anyone interested in joining should call the downtown COPS office at 625-3300.

Some COPS organizations in Spokane have reported tension with the police department in recent months. The director of the COPS shop in Nevada-Lidgerwood was dismissed recently in a dispute with police.

At COPS Haven last winter, a volunteer quit following a disagreement over public statements about crime problems in the East Central Neighborhood.

Tubac said COPS Southeast has not been troubled by such tensions.

COPS started several years ago when Police Chief Terry Mangan implemented a neighborhood police effort. It has become a nationwide trend in crime-fighting.

One of the more successful elements of the COPS program is the neighborhood observation patrol. Volunteers drive the streets at night watching for suspicious or illegal activities, and they report what they see to police.

“It’s another set of eyes and ears for the police department,” Tubac said.

For example, the observation patrol last summer spotted a late-night party near Comstock Park and let police know in time so they could break up the party before there was any trouble, Tubac said.

Police Officer J.D. Anderson, who is assigned to the southeast neighborhood, said youth gangs continue to cause problems on the South Hill and in the Lincoln Heights area.

He said their presence is frequently seen in the form of graffiti sprayed on walls around the neighborhood.

When the presence of graffiti is reported, volunteers from the COPS organizations go the scene and take photographs for detectives, who try to keep tabs on the gangs.

After a report and the photos are sent to detectives, the volunteers work with property owners to get the graffiti removed.

Gang activity has been worse recently in the East Central neighborhood, said Doug Anstine, chairman of the COPS Haven group.

He said the police suppression of drug dealing near First and Madison downtown has pushed the gang members into the East Central neighborhood.

“The police right now are putting a lot of pressure on them,” he said.

All COPS volunteers must pass a criminal background check and complete orientation and training. Anstine said he recently completed special training so he can take fingerprints from vehicles or garages that have been burglarized.

“It’s fun,” Anstine said.

Getting enough volunteers to keep the station running is a constant struggle, he said.

“You can get burned out,” he said Police Officer Bill Schaber, the neighborhood officer for the East Central area, said, “We definitely need more bodies down here if for nothing else than to answer the phone.”

, DataTimes