Virtual Block Clubs: Organizing a Crime Watch via the Internet
The CCP/SAFE (Community Crime Prevention/Safety For Everybody) Unit of the Minneapolis Police
Department prevents crime through partnerships with residents, businesses and property owners, and helps
organize these stakeholders in the community to reduce and prevent crime.
Previous to the explosion of Internet use, one tool was the dissemination of crime alerts via flyers or faxes,
and another was to meet with affected businesses or residents. Getting out paper and fax alerts was slow and
often not everyone in an area could make it to a meeting.
In order to meet the rising demand for swift communication of alerts with Downtown Minneapolis
stakeholders (businesses, residents, owners, workers, etc.), Team 7A established an e-mail crime alert system
for our District in the Downtown Command (DTC) in 1996.
With the advent of CODEFOR (Computer Optimized Deployment Focussing on Results) in 1998 SAFE
Team 7A enhanced this system by establishing a Virtual Block Club meeting for any and all stakeholders in
the Downtown Command. These meetings are taking place 24/7, in keeping with CODEFOR's tenet of
"relentless follow-up and assessment." We are in continual contact with those in a position to target-harden
their properties, encourage better prevention and security practices amongst employees, and advise residents
of emerging crime patterns and trends.
Contents:
What is a "Virtual Block Club?"
Who may participate in the VBC?
How do we recruit volunteers for a VBC?
How to run a VBC
Examples of VBC uses by the Minneapolis Police Department
Recent Success
What is a Virtual Block Club?
The traditional Block Club is a group of neighbors in a residential or business community, defined primarily
by geography, who band together to solve problems in that area for the short and long term. For example, the
residents between 33rd and 35th Streets, Nicollet and Stevens Avenue South, might meet to discuss reported
narcotics activity, illegal dumping from folks taking the 35th St. exit and zipping back on the freeway, or
who's just bought a pit bull and appears to be training it to fight.
The success of their action to resolve these problems is directly related to the time and energy they put in to
the strategies they resolve to implement. And when the block's issues are crime-related, the success of their
work will depend in a large part on a solid partnership between the police and that block club.
A Virtual Block Club is a group of neighbors which can reside or do business in a particular geographic
area, but are not able to meet regularly due to the numbers of those concerned or the erratic schedules and
commitments of the VBC members. For example, in Downtown Minneapolis hundreds of people are
employed by office tower owners and managers to maintain the property and keep the business tenants secure
from interlopers, panhandlers, etc. One participant may work 15 blocks from another, but their issues are the
same: What do you do with drunks passed out in your stairwells when you arrive for work in the morning?
How disorderly does a panhandler have to be come before I need to call the police? What can I do to get
workers in my building from leaving their doors wide open and all their corporate and personal property
unattended over lunch hour?
Because of the difficulty in setting up times and locations to meet face-to-face, a VBC is conducted, well,
"Virtually," in other words, over the internet via e-mail or through on-line chat groups. A VBC is ideally
suited for working with business associations due to the fact that an ever-increasing number of businesses
communicate via e-mail. Residential block clubs can also benefit from between-meeting updates via e-mail;
it is increasingly easy for residents to get free e-mail and internet access, so it is no longer a tool only
available to higher income areas.
Who may participate in a Virtual Block Club?
Anyone with an e-mail address or access to the internet can participate in a virtual bock club. Actually, anyone who is
part of a business or residence with an internet connection can participate fully and others can still be in the
communication loop.
How do we recruit volunteers for a VBC?
As you make contacts in the community, simply ask for business cards and, if it is not noted, reprint the contact's e-
mail address on the card. Ultimately these will be the same people you have probably worked with over the years in
your district or precinct, and you need only update their contact information in your database with the e-mail address.
Another way to recruit volunteers is CYBER-DOORKNOCKING. This is the Internet equivalent of walking a
block and rapping on doors. To build up my e-mail list for my district, I have been doing the internet equivalent of
walking a block and rapping on doors: I call it Cyberdoorknocking:
Here’s what you do.
1. Get on your web browser and use a search engine, such as Yahoo, Excite, WebCrawler, Google--there are dozens
out there but these four seem to be the easiest to use. It doesn’t really matter although some find more web sites than
others.
2. In the search field, key in the zip codes that cover your district, plus the word “email” (you can run it again when
you’re done the first time with the word hyphenated to find others). Hit the search button and you’ll get a list of web
sites that may OR MAY NOT have e-mail addresses and which people or businesses are located in your district.
Here's my usual formula:
+“55401” +“e-mail” +"Minneapolis"
You will narrow your search in some engines by restricting by date when the web page was modified.
3. At that point you have to click on each one and when you find the e-mail address, just send them your introductory
note. A sample note is on the second to the last page. Keep the note brief, although attaching the crime alert at the
end catches attention when my note gets out.
Some web sites will have a business or person listed with the zip code you keyed in but another with the word “e-
mail” that is not in your district. You can look at the web site of the business or person in your district and see of they
have a contact e-mail address. If they have a web site, 99% of the time they have an address or a button to click on to
send your message so you don’t need to know what the address is. If they don’t, often you just type
“webmaster@webname.com” or “info@webname.com” in the “To” line and it’ll get to someone. E.g., Valspar Paint
company is at http://www.valspar.com. You would send a note to info@valspar.com...
Voila! You’re done. I manage the list with Outlook and our discussion list "virtual block club" is on Yahoo Groups, a
free e-mail list management service. I have to re-key it into the list once I get a reply, but often this is simply a cut-
and-paste operation from my call/e-mail log.
Caution: E-mail lists are sold just as postal mail address lists are sold. Occasionally you may get a negative response
to your note due to the appearance that they have been "spammed" with a sales offer. In my experience only maybe
one out of a hundred reply with that concern.
How to run a Virtual Block Club
Now that you’ve compiled a list, what the heck do you do with it?
From a law enforcement agency's perspective, this is not too difficult. There are two main options in using e-
mail, for example, in distributing crime alerts, suspect information, etc.:
1. A list can be set up where the e-mail recipients get your note, but cannot reply to the other
listmembers--only to you.
2. A list can be set up where the e-mail participants can reply and the reply goes to the entire list, or the
sender only from that list.
3. A list can restrict e-mail messages from participants to those which a moderator approves. So
everyone can post to the list, but irrelevant or mistaken messages can be deleted without the entire list
needing to see them.
With option #1, you are greatly limiting the potential for the VBC. Remember, this is a partnership you are
developing with the community and although the vast majority of those participating may be very supportive
of law enforcement, they will feel even more a part of the solution to crime problems if they know their voice
is heard.
With option #2, you have a slight risk of someone posting irrelevant, non-factual, or personal notes by
accident to the list. This can taint the credibility of your efforts and distract people from the partnership of
problem-solving you have committed to.
We have chosen to run our Virtual Block Club as a moderated e-mail list. This is easily set up using a
number of e-mail services. We use Yahoogroups.com, since it can be moderated, we can regulate attached
files for our e-mails, and we can to a limited degree maintain a contact list on it as well. Yahoogroups like
many other such services are free, or will have an innocuous add posted to the front or back of an e-mail
message from a sponsor which pays for the service. Finally, we can also maintain the list as a private
conference group. In other words, no one can just join up and cause problems.
There are many options for setting up an automated list:
* Increasingly list management services are being offered. Using a list manager means people can
subscribe or unsubscribe automatically by sending a note to a certain e-mail address. This keeps you out
of the administrative hassle. If you do this, however, you might want to opt for certain restrictions as to
who *may post* to the list. With our subset on YahooGroups, members can post but we approve the
notes before they are sent out; this eliminates redundant or "Out of office replies" going to the whole list.
* Our general alert list is maintained in MS Outlook. Outlook contains a much more complete
contact list management tool which allows us to distinguish between alert recipients (e.g., business
burglary alerts need not go to residents; car break-in alerts where the crime pattern is in the North Loop
doesn't need to go to Loring Park residents.)
If you are more familiar with e-mail management programs, and working the internet comes naturally to you,
you could manage the list yourself with little effort. Simply insist that people send you an introductory note
with their e-mail address and you can then add them to the list. Since alerts will be coming from you,
obviously they would send e-mail to you requesting removal from the list too. Sometimes they switch ISPs
and you get a bounced note which means you can take them off the list too.
Other hints:
Contact the neighborhood associations in your district and see if they’d be willing to forward your e-
mail messages to their various lists. Some have their lists broken down by topic (“Youth & Family,” “Crime
Prevention,” “Business District Development,” etc.) and if they are cordial, they will probably invite
individuals on their lists to join yours. For example, the Downtown Minneapolis Neighborhood Association
and Citizens for a Loring Park Community have routinely forwarded my crime alerts and meeting
announcements within a day or so of receiving my notes.
For more information do not hesitate to call, write, or e-mail us using the above contact information.
Examples of VBC uses by the Minneapolis Police Dept.
* We have sent out various crime alerts, including…
the suspect description of the "skyway groper," a man who reached out and fondled women as he
passed by in the skyways during lunch hour
various crime patterns including a series of construction site burglaries in the North Loop, spikes in
laptop computer theft reports, and an aggressive panhandler, among many other alerts
an interloper was ID'd via a digital image from an office tower's security camera, relayed to the VBC,
and mug shots distributed within minutes from our property crimes investigators (see next page)
a subset of the VBC, parking lot and ramp managers, have been getting weekly reports of crime
reports in their facilities so they can adjust their security personnel to prevent car break-ins, loitering, etc.
a group of homeless shelters now receives, weekly, a report on those arrested who are using the
shelters to the management can determine who is succeeding in their programs vs. those who are merely
using the shelter network to evade the police
There are many other ways the VBC can work but the most important element is the two-way
communication and partnership with the community. Our partners in this effort, as demonstrated above,
range from high-end retail stores to office towers to homeless shelters.
We wish you luck in starting your Virtual Block Club! Feel free to get in touch with us with any questions at
the contact information above.
Here’s the message I send introducing myself:
Hi,
I work for the Minneapolis Police Department's crime prevention unit.
I found your e-mail address while browsing the web and note from your location that your office (home) is in my district.
I'd like to offer to put your e-mail address onto our crime alert list. (See the recent alert reprinted below.) There is no
charge-- and when we send notes to this list, your e-mail address will not appear in the message (the message will be
addressed simply to "District-7A"). Also, this list will never be shared or sold to anyone.
My partner and I are also available for personal safety presentations, security surveys of your office and property, and
for general advice on crime in the area. All of these programs also are no charge. Call us if you'd like us to stop by
and let us know what would be a convenient time.
Or, we'd be happy to chat with you if you'd like to stop by our office to visit. We're just a few blocks away. Thanks!
Luther Krueger, Crime Prevention Specialist luther.krueger@ci.minneapolis.mn.us Phone: 673-2923
Officer Craig Williams craig.williams@ci.minneapolis.mn.us Phone: 673-2959
Minneapolis Police Department, Community Crime Prevention/SAFE District 7A
(Downtown, Loring Park, Elliot Park)
th
29 5 ST S., Minneapolis MN 55402
CRIME ALERT * September 24, 1998
The Minneapolis Police Department seeks to identify and arrest a suspect possibly involved in three seperate cases--
criminal sexual conduct/rape, molestation, and luring.
Suspect is a white male, 30-40 years old, approx. 6' tall, medium build, long blond/light brown hair drawn back in a
ponytail, with a neatly trimmed goatee beard.
Three incidents may be related:
On September 1 at approximately 1 p.m., the suspect attempted to lure two teen-aged girls to his car near Cedar
Avenue South and Edgewater Blvd. The victims reported his presence near Hale School on several other occasions.
Suspect was unsuccessful.
On September 7 from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. September 8, the suspect offered a ride to a vulnerable adult. Suspect took
victim to remote location near railroad tracks at 28th Street West and Dupont Avenue South. Suspect proceeded to
rape the victim and leave her at this location.
On September 13 at 10:25 p.m. a woman, 22 years old, was approached by the suspect on a bike near the intersection
of Chicago Avenue South and East River Road. Suspect held victim while fondling her and masturbating. Suspect fled
on bike.
If you have any information concerning these three incidents, please call the Minneapolis Police Department Sex
Crimes Unit: 673-3081.
A Recent Success of Virtual Block Club
action:
January 30, 2001, Noon: Office tower security relays
suspect photos in a suspicious
person intent on entering the building with a cancelled
electronic card key:
1230 Hrs: Downtown Command property crimes investigators recognize
photo as that of frequently trespassed suspect from several buildings.
Case # Name Age Incident Date Offense
MP93314333 Kalkbrenner, Perry Walter 25 11/6/1993 DISCON
MP94091609 Kalkbrenner, Perry Walter 26 4/8/1995 WT
UM95100317 Kalkbrenner, Perry Walter 27 10/28/1995 TRSPAS
MP96005377 Kalkbrenner, Perry Walter 27 1/6/1996 TRSPAS
MP96034568 Kalkbrenner, Perry Walter 27 2/7/1996 WT
MP98038012 Kalkbrenner, Perry Walter 29 2/6/1998 ASLT5
MP98148574 Kalkbrenner, Perry Walter 29 5/12/1998 WT
MP99397783 Kalkbrenner, Perry Walter 31 12/20/1999 TRSPAS
MP00244914 Kalkbrenner, Perry Walter 32 8/10/2000 THEFT
MP01022424 Kalkbrenner, Perry Walter 32 1/25/2001 TRSPAS
1245 Hrs: Mug shots of this man and his extensive local criminal
history are relayed to over 300 property managers, security and
building owners in the Downtown Command.