NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH INPUT OHHA NEWSLETTER, April 2022

Scam Alerts
Since the start of the pandemic, reports of scam victims have increased in our area. Block Captain
Hilary Barrett has highlighted resources available through the Oregon Department of Justice to help
us identify a scam before we become victims. Below is material from one of their white papers,
entitled: “Six Signs of a Scam”

1. Scammers Contact You “Out of the Blue”
It could be a knock on the door, a phone call, of a piece of mail you weren’t expecting claiming
you owe money and you could be in trouble if you don’t pay.

2. Scammers Claim There Is an “Emergency”
…if you don’t respond immediately your prize winnings will be lost, or a relative or friend is in
trouble in a foreign country. If something prompts immediate action, be cautious.

3. Scammers Ask for Your Personal information
Someone posing as a bank employee, healthcare provider or governmental official asks you to
disclose personal or financial information. Anytime someone asks you for this information, be
suspicious!

4. Scammers Want You to Wire Money
… or purchase pre-paid debit cards. This is the easiest way for scam artists to get their hands
on your money, and it’s almost impossible to get it back once it’s been sent. Don’t do it!

5. Scammers Tell You to Keep It “Secret”
Scammers don’t want to arouse suspicion by questions from your family or friends who might
see through their scam. Check with someone you trust before acting.

6. If It Sounds too Good to Be True
… it probably is! It’s always better to be cautious than to be a victim.
Check online at www.oregonconsumer.gov for more information.

Block Roster Updates
Spring is the time many Oak Hills block captains update their block rosters. Your block captain is
your link to safety and security alerts, but he or she cannot alert you if they don’t have your contact
information. If you need to know your block captain, contact Oak Hills Neighborhood Watch c/o Jim
Dearey: jdearey@gmail.com. Block captains are encouraged to share rosters with block members,
but roster information is not shared with anyone outside your block.
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Oak Hills National Night Out: Sunday, July 31, 2022
Please reserve this date. This year’s Oak Hills National Night Out will take place on Sunday, July 31 st .
This pot-luck party is a chance for you to visit your neighbors and to meet teams of emergency
responders who serve our community throughout the year.
Neighborhood Watch Input OHHA Newsletter 3/23/22
 
Zoom Meeting 3/10/22 for Oak Hills Residents 
On Thursday evening, 3/10/22, the Washington County Sheriff’s Office hosted a Zoom conference exclusively for Oak Hills’ residents. During the conference, members of the Sheriff’s senior staff explained how the services associated with Enhanced Sheriff’s Patrol Districts (ESPD) benefit Oak Hills’ residents. Their staff also addressed questions posed by Oak Hills’ residents.
You may access a recording of the session, along with copies of visual aids through the OHHA website.
Safety and Security
Results of the recent Oak Hills – wide survey were released earlier this month. According to the survey results, with 47% of households responding, neighborhood safety and security remain principal concerns of residents.
Identifying Crime Suspects: How You Can Help
As a neighborhood, mail box break-ins, car prowls, and catalytic converter thefts are the bulk of the crimes we’ve encountered. In most cases, we are able to approximate the time window of this loss to a couple of hours, but with very few witnesses or photographic evidence to identify perpetrators, most cases remain unsolved.
If your security system’s field of view includes a section of the street near your home, you may be able to help. If you:
  1. learn that a crime has occurred near you and the approximate time it took place;
  2.  if it is likely that perpetrator(s) or their vehicle passed through your system’s field of view before or after the crime took place,
then, please check your footage. Recently, investigators have been able to link criminals apprehended in a different part of the county to local cases with the help of such photos. If your search identifies a photo of a suspicious person or vehicle, forward it to Oak Hills Neighborhood Watch. We will ensure your photo is added to the appropriate WCSO case file.
Periodic Block Roster Updates
Spring is the time of year that many block captains update their block contact rosters. Block captains use the rosters to keep you keep you and your neighbors informed of security issues that may impact you.  In some blocks, copies of the updated rosters are distributed to block members and serve as a neighborhood directory. Rosters are not intended for distribution to anyone but block members.
 
 
Block Captains Needed
Although the time requirements for being a block captain are small, block captains are a critical link to keep Oak Hills connected, informed, and safe. Most areas of Oak Hills are served by a block captain. However, about 20% of our neighbors remain unrepresented. If you live in one of the following areas and are interested in more information, please contact Jim Dearey at jdearey@yahoo.com
 

Block Captain Vacancies
  • NW Oak Hills Dive from NW 154th Place to east end of the rec. center property, including NW 154th Pl;
  • NW 144th Avenue, between the NW Eastway Circle entrances;
  • The northeast end of Forestel Loop;
  • NW Perimeter Drive between NW Forest and NW Northumbria Lane;
  • NW 151st Place;
  • NW Perimeter Drive between NW Westway Street and NW Oak Hills Drive, including NW Perimeter Place.


Oak Hills Welcomes New WCSO Community Outreach Specialist
Effective March 21, our Public Outreach & Education Specialist is: 
Kody Harris
Public Outreach & Education Specialist
Kody_harris@co.washington.or.us
503-846-5578


The WCSO had a listening session for the Oak Hills community on March 10, 2022. To see the slides and links from that session please go to: WASHINGTON COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE ZOOM SESSION

WCSO also provided a number of links, which we have listed here:

February Neighborhood Watch Info:

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  • WCSO Compliments Oak Hills Reporting.
The following is part of an email WCSO sent to OHHA and Neighborhood Watch about our community’s response to a series of incidents that occurred in early February
Not once but TWICE on Saturday residents in Oak Hills called us about suspicious or concerning behavior, directly aiding our efforts to contact these individuals.
 
While unsettling—to say the least—neither succeeded with any theft or hostile encounters because of great neighborhood reporting that gave us extra eyes to contact both! The police report also contains great notes that neighbors contacted each other---when one saw the man jump into their neighbor’s yard, they called the neighbor to alert them to the situation.
 
If that were an exam, the Oak Hills community aced it!

  • Quarterly Call for Service Report – ask your block captain.
WCSO provides the Neighborhood Watch with a quarterly summary of service requests they answer in Oak Hills. Check with your block captain for more details.
  • Fence installed
As part of our efforts to deter traffic across Oak Hills’ property to the Dinihanian pond, a barrier fence has been installed to block access to the pathway that trespassers have been using for access.
  • Block captains needed.
Most neighborhoods in Oak Hills are served by a block captain. The following sections of Oak Hills have block captain vacancies. Contact Jim Dearey: jdearey@gmail.com for more information
  • NW Oak Hills Dive from NW 154th Place to east end of the rec. center property, including NW 154th Pl;
  • NW 144th Avenue, between the NW Eastway Circle entrances;
  • The northeast end of Forstel Loop;
  • NW Perimeter Drive between NW Forest and NW Northumbria Lane;
  • NW 151st Place;
  • NW Perimeter Drive between NW Westway Street and NW Oak Hills Drive, including NW Perimeter Place.

OAK HILLS NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH

Last quarter Oak Hills was plagued by a rash of car prowls, and mailbox break-ins. So far this year, a resident’s van was stolen on January 4th, but things in Oak Hills have been relatively quiet, since. However, the incident rate of car thefts, car prowls, and catalytic converter removals remains high in housing areas surrounding Oak Hills.

Washington County detectives recently interviewed a subject who had been apprehended while stealing from houses and vehicles in the Bethany area. During the interview, the subject described how he works a neighborhood:
1.  Look for unlocked vehicles
2. Remove garage door openers and other valuables from those vehicles.
3. Use the garage door opener to access the house when the occupants are not present.
The subject claimed to know of other people also working the Bethany area, all of them operating independently.

Reduce your chances of becoming a victim:
  • Remove garage door openers from unattended vehicles.
  • Remove valuables from vehicles: if it’s valuable, don’t leave it in the car!
  • Lock unattended vehicles.
  • Use a scrapper or deicer to clear car windows – NEVER leave a running vehicle unattended.
  • Report incidents to the Washington County Sheriff’s office ASAP!
If you observe someone stealing a package, immediately report it to 9-1-1. There are many small details you might want to write down to remember that can provide helpful information for detectives: 
  • Location of Incident – Where did it happen? 
  • Subject(s) Description – Who was involved?  
  • Gender 
  • Race 
  • Height/Build 
  • Hair  
  • Clothing 
  • Scars/Marks/Tattoos 
  • Other identifiable information: glasses, facial hair, backpack, weapons 
  • Direction of Travel 
  • Vehicle Description 
  • License plate 
  • Make/Model 
  • Year if known – or older vs. newer 
  • Color 
  • Identifiable features: custom additions, modifications, damage, bumper stickers 
  • Direction of Travel 
  • Occupants 
  • Sequence of Events – What happened?  
 
These details allow the Sheriff’s Office the best opportunity to catch the individual(s) involved. Also, it helps deputies watch for trends in activities, adjust patrols as needed, and offer further education to the communities most affected. 
And remember, if the crime is currently happening, report it to 9-1-1. If the crime is discovered after-the-fact, report it to non-emergency at 503-629-0111. 


 Alerts About Compromised Accounts: BBB has been receiving reports on Scam Tracker about a con claiming your Amazon, Paypal, Netflix or bank account has been compromised. Victims receive an email, call, or text message which explains that there has been suspicious activity on one of their accounts, and it further urges them to take immediate action to prevent the account from being compromised. Be extra cautious about unsolicited calls, emails, and texts.

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LATEST NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH INFO: 

Recent Incidents
·       RV Lot
A pair of thieves slipped into the RV lot on October 26th and 30th and removed seven catalytic converters from residents’ vehicles and stole a large trailer that was being stored in the lot
·       Mailbox break-in, attempted break-in
On November 12th a mailbox was breached on NW Perimeter Drive. On November 17th there was an attempted breach of a community mailbox on NW Oak Hills Drive that was foiled by an alert resident. The vehicle was an older, beat-up, white car with a noisy muffler and no license plates. A car of a similar description, also without plates, was seen idling by another mailbox on the morning of October 10th.
·       Stolen Purse from locked car
On Tuesday morning, November 2nd, a purse was stolen from a locked car parked in the lot of the Oak Hills School. The victim was able to recover her intact wallet.

Sharing Images
     Recently, WCSO detectives described how they were able to connect a Ring image of a theft recorded in one neighborhood, to an event recorded at an apartment house several miles away, ultimately leading to the identification and the apprehension of the perpetrator. In late September, one of our residents captured images of three people searching the interior of cars with flashlights, less than a block away from a theft. If we can generate video evidence of the description of people or cars in the vicinity of the event at about the time of its occurrence, even when there is no video or eye witness record of the crime itself, we may be able to generate evidence that could lead to an arrest. 
     Personal security cameras are becoming more common in our neighborhood, as they are throughout our area. We are looking for ways to share our resources to generate leads without imposing a major inconvenience on security camera owners. If you have ideas, please pass them on to your block captain, or to me if you don’t have a block captain.

Non-Emergency Reporting On-line
Many non-emergency complaints may be reported on-line, through the WCSO website. The following explains more about what kinds of incidents can be reported on-line and how to report. On-line reports generate an instant case report number and are included in crime data systems used by the Sheriff’s Office.
All non-emergency complaints can be reported by phone to the WCSO non-emergency dispatch line: 503-629-0111. Non-emergency complaints, such as property damage, lost property and thefts when the victim has no idea who possibly committed the crime may be reported on-line, through the sheriff’s web site: https://www.co.washington.or.us/Sheriff/report-a-crime.cfm
At this page you’ll see a lists of all complaints that can be reported on-line. Select the appropriate category and complete the report. You must report by phone to the non-emergency dispatch if:
  • The complaint doesn’t fit one of the listed categories.
  • The suspect’s identity is known or you have an observed suspect description.
  • The loss includes drugs or firearms.
  • The crime occurs outside WCSO’s jurisdiction.
Advantage of on-line reporting:
  • Can save time.
  • Generates an instant case report including the case number.


Block Captain Vacancies

Block Captains fulfill an important role on Oak Hills’ Neighborhood Watch Program. Their duties require little time or effort: maintaining a current roster of block residents, having access to information about crime trends in the area and safety alerts for the benefit of block members. The also serve as an important focus 
for communications among block residents. If you live in one of the shaded areas of this map, you do not currently have a block captain. If you are interested in learning more about serving as a block captain, please contact Jim Dearey at jdearey@gmail.com.

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NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH

We have an active Neighborhood Watch program in our community. 

We are currently seeking more people to volunteer to be Block Captains.
The job requires little effort but provides a big service to our community!
For more information contact:
Jim Dearey (jdearey@yahoo.com) 

We also participate in the National Night Out event that happens across the country. For more information CLICK HERE
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ZOOM WITH WASHINGTON COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICERS


The Sheriff’s Office is hosting a Zoom conference call exclusively for Oak Hills that will address criminal activity we have experienced in the past two months, as well as crime prevention and safety strategies.

Please participate, if you are able: Community Safety Zoom Meeting Tuesday, June 15th, 7:00 PM

Washington County Sheriff’s Office Detectives and Patrolmen will provide an update of recent criminal and security violations we have experienced recently, and will offer ideas we can implement to discourage crime in our area.  Recent incidents include:
  • Stolen property
  • Vandalism at the Rec Center
  • Community mailbox break-ins
  • Increase in foot traffic cutting through Oak Hills Community property to trespass on neighboring property
  • Car prowling
  • Other incidents/suspicious behavior

This meeting is primarily for Oak Hills Neighborhood Watch Block Captains and Oak Hills Community leaders, but will be open to all concerned Oak Hills residents. We invite and look forward to your participation.
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CLICK THE BUTTON BELOW FOR THE RECORDED MEETING:

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Make the 9PM Routine a habit
​in your home.

  • LOCK UP your car, house, windows, garage, gates, shed
  • TURN ON exterior lights, security cameras, alarm systems
  • BRING IN valuables from your car, yard, patio

LINK to the 9PM Routine Site