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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Cops Southwest Volunteers Stay On The Lookout For Crime

Janice Podsada Staff writer

Since the grand opening of COPS Southwest on April 5, volunteers have been quietly clocking in the hours, including a day shift and occasional night duty.

When the volunteers aren’t presiding over the front desk from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Friday, they’re occasionally cruising the South Side from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m.

Their late-night drives give them a chance to survey the neighborhood and report suspicious activity to police, said Shirley Wilson, volunteer director at COPS Southwest, 820 S. Monroe.

“We drive round and round. We don’t interfere,” Wilson said.

“We can’t get out of the car. We just spy and call the police.”

COPS Southwest serves the area bordered on the north by Interstate 90, on the west by the bluff overlooking Latah Creek, on the east by Bernard Street and on the south by 29th Avenue.

It’s the city’s 10th police substation to open.

Volunteers include the young and old.

Last week, when a 3-year-old boy disappeared for two hours, Wilson was able to muster 30 volunteers in less than an hour to help canvass the neighborhood.

“That was at 5 o’clock (p.m.),” she said. “Think of that.”

Much to the relief of the boy’s parents, he was found cowering underneath the porch of a nearby apartment.

“I have a telephone tree of volunteers,” Wilson said.

But she’s always willing to take more help. With more people, she could extend office hours and open the substation on Saturdays and Sundays.

And so last week she gladly handed out another volunteer application to a nearby resident.

In a corner of the substation, at a long brown table, Dennis Butler, 21, hunched over the form.

“I’ve got to fill this out and get it notarized,” the longtime South Side resident said.

Butler, who grew up “all over the hill,” said the neighborhood is “pretty clean,” except for “all the scuzz,” referring to a few pockets of drug-dealing and alleged gang activity.

Nearby, a volunteer named Ruth answered the phone and kept an ear on the scanner.

“Our neighborhood is our own,” said Ruth, who like all volunteers is advised not to give her last name for safety reasons. “We can’t just sit at home and do nothing.”

Wilson encourages neighbors to talk to volunteers even if their concerns seems slight or inconsequential - an abandoned car, an unsightly couch dumped on the street or a stranger loitering in the park.

“This is my neighborhood. My house,” Wilson said.

“What may seem like small potatoes to the big guys is big stuff to us.”

Her philosophy of community involvement seems to be working.

In June, more than 166 people called COPS Southwest, filled out a complaint form or a voter registration form, or just dropped in to say hello.

Wilson, who has been a substation volunteer for two years, said complaints focus on graffiti, alleged drug-dealing and gang activity.

Graffiti is a summer problem, Wilson said.

“It’s important to remove it right away. We don’t want the person who did it to see it stay. We’re hot after them,” she said.

Volunteers photograph the “artist’s work,” Wilson said. Removal costs are tallied so that if culprits are caught, they can be fined for damages.

As if to emphasize the point, a can of “Graffiti X” sits behind Wilson, the bold lettering on its label proclaiming its ability to remove spray paint and permanent marker from most surfaces.

Drug-dealing is usually reported to volunteers when neighbors notice too many people coming and going from a house or apartment.

Although Wilson didn’t say where some of those suspected South Hill drug houses are, she did say that volunteers advise neighbors to record license plate numbers of frequently seen vehicles.

The substation has 62 part-time volunteers. They are asked to donate at least five hours a week and complete a 20-hour training program.

, DataTimes