Your URNA Newsletter!

June 5, 2017
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Greetings Upper Rockridge Neighbors,

This is your monthly URNA Newsletter to help us better stay in contact with you!
(This mailing is addressed to: Current and Former Members of URNA, Volunteers, Newsletter subscribers. Feel free to forward to anyone and ask them to subscribe)

WHO WE ARE: URNA is made up of a small group of volunteers that contribute considerable time, effort to help make our neighborhood safer. The reality of our times is that Oakland Police still is not fully staffed and has limited resources that get allocated more to "hot spots" of the city. URNA is one of about 7 different neighborhood associations doing this type of activity and we meet every several months to share info and also liase with OPD and city council members.

Be a Contributor to your neighborhood safety!
Truth is that only about 1/4 of the URNA Newsletter readers are active members!
MEMBERSHIP DRIVE: We really need more URNA members to sustain/grow the patrols and cameras! We want to add more evening hours (many car break-ins lately) and WE NEED YOUR HELP. We know a lot of you have alarm systems already and even some with patrols, but MORE PATROLS means lower crime statistically and our patrol watches the neighborhood, not just individual subscribers. PLEASE CONSIDER JOINING URNA. We have a low-low rate for Associate members now too. Help us keep the neighborhood safe. Thx. CLICK HERE TO SEE THE NEW MEMBER RATES BELOW

Village Market Membership Drive table: Do you have some time to help man a table and hand out flyers to our neighborhood hub visitors? Please contact us.

NEWS
ROCKRIDGE NEWS ARTICLE: We made it into the news! Rockridge News anyway. This article appeared in May 6 issue and describes patrol efforts by Safer Rockridge and Upper Rockridge Neighborhood Association. Best way to read is using your PDF reader: JUST CLICK HERE or ON THE IMAGE and it will take you to the PDF.

AREA CRIME MAP May turned out to rev up the crime a bit unfortunately after a calm March/April. Several robberies and if you read NextDoor (you should) you'll see a number of car break-ins. Please SEE the PARKING OUTSIDE tips below or on our website. There is some new technology where keyless remotes are compromised.

Check out the crime map from MAY below. CLICK on map or link below for interactive version.

The BEST way to view this is interactively via the CrimeMapper link: http://www.crimemapping.com/Share/URNA If you pick an address close to the center of URNA coverage map (e.g. 77 Clarewood Ln is good), you can see crime in the whole area when you don't limit to the 1 mile radius as shown above...

***FACTOID: THERE ARE OVER 1500 homes in URNA coverage area. Our patrols benefit ALL of them. We could add day and night patrols OR double our patrol cars if only 10% of you participate! We're working hard for you! Please take part in the collective safety of our neighborhood! -->OUR PATROLS are there to protect the community, not just individual houses!

See the LOWER MEMBER RATES below and JOIN URNA now! Our patrols augment the security of our area, even if you have a personal patrol service.

OTHER POINTS OF INTEREST

WHAT TO DO if you see suspicious people or experience crime:

OPD, Cpt. Wingate made it clear that we should call in all incidents that happen in our area for the simple reason that OPD resources are assigned by need. If there is ANY chance your are in physical danger, please specify it clearly to dispatch, since that can greatly improve response time!
CRO: We also have a "Community Resource Officer". So, if you see a suspicious person you can call the CRO and for any more serious incidents, of course call the OPD.
CRO Area2: Kristine Jurgens communitypolicingbeat13@oaklandnet.com
Her OPD WORK EMAIL: (preferred)
kjurgens-duenas@oaklandnet.com
Work Telephone: (510)507-6560
Area 2 CRO Sergeant: T. Martin
tmartin@oaklandnet.com
Tel: 510-238-2008

EACH MEMBER HELPS!

FOR EACH approx 12 new members we can expand patrol hours by ~ 10 hours - an extra shift.

Please JOIN URNA so we can expand hours

Volunteers/Board Members: We are always looking for more volunteers, and someone to help with community education and outreach. Please contact us if interested. You are also welcome to attend a board meeting at any time.

Tax Expert? We are looking for someone to help with Association tax returns...

Membership Options: Please forward this newsletter to neighbors and anyone who might be interested. Check our new website for the URNA Patrol Coverage Map and Membership info. Patrol hours will be sent separately to members... THANK YOU.

The URNA Website - a great wealth of info.. We are also on Twitter and Facebook!

CHECK OUT our redesigned Website with many helpful tips and full information.

SAFETY TIPS/FAQS/NEWS ITEMS & More! Read our new Mission Statement...

PARKING OUTSIDE (Updated)?
If you park a car on the street or have visiting guests doing so, Never leave anything in the car these days. They DO check before breaking in according to sightings in our area, and there does seem to be gangs of people doing this in concert. Secondly, it is not a good idea to leave a garage door opener in your car if you park outside anymore. Thirdly, we keep images of our registration on phone/dropbox and cut the address out of any documents in the car. If your car is broken into at Bart, they may come to house with suspicion you're not home... Be safe out there!
NEW: DOES YOUR CAR USE A KEYLESS REMOTE? Mine does, and it has a number of convenient advantages as you already know. No fiddling with keys - just walk up and touch handle. Unfortunately there are disadvantages too that require your attention: It is easier to leave your remote in the car or misplace it. (as one neighbor found out recently and the car was snatched). Secondly, there are devices out there that can pick up the signal from your remote fob, amplify it and mimic you standing next to car!! If you park outside and put key somewhere close to entrance of house, you might want to consider an "RFID" bag to shield the radio waves and prevent this kind of break-in! Here is a link to an Amazon search for such a bag:
RFID Bag search on Amazon (example only, not endorsement)

Don't just subscribe to our free news.
PLEASE CONTRIBUTE by joining URNA and help us expand patrols!

Are you on NextDoor.com yet?! URNA and the OPD urge you all to join the website to keep up to date on what's going on in the 'hood! Additionally, Oakland Police have accounts and often post useful info on crimes, statistics for our Area2, etc. Our city councilperson Dan Kalb has been posting crime reports on NextDoor as well. URNA does not receive any money from NextDoor for this advice!
NOTE NOTE! To join NextDoor, you need a valid address in one of the neighborhood sectors they created. The boundaries are a little funky, in that your neighbor a block away may not be in your neighborhood, and therefore will not see your posts unless they include your neighborhood in their view. You can choose to see posts from many neighborhoods and to receive daily summaries of such posts too. Be sure to check your settings...

URNA MEMBERSHIP LEVELS/RATES

We now have two new rates for members! The biggest obstacle to getting the most out of our patrol services is membership! We NEED MORE OF OUR NEIGHBORS to participate. More members = more hours of patrol service = more safety for our area! We hope these rates will be attractive.

We know that some of our neighbors have their own alarm service patrols and some areas have cameras too. Remember that we ALL benefit from our service and the others. We now offer TWO MEMBERSHIP levels for URNA*:

FULL MEMBER: $35/mo*
ASSOCIATE MEMBER: $20/mo*

For full information about what features are included, please visit the website and see JOIN NOW!

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Did you know URNA now has a Facebook group page? And a Twitter account? Follow us on these and you can sign up for the newsletter on those pages too!
URNA on Facebook : www.Facebook.com/URNAOak
URNA on Twitter: www.Twitter.com/URNAOakland

HOW TO EMAIL US: We have created convenient aliases to contact URNA, as well as through the contact form on the website. Here they are:
info@URNA-oak.org -- General Inquiries or Membership Info
billing@URNA-oak.org -- Billing Matters
newsletter@URNA-oak.org -- Join Newsletter
outreach@URNA-oak.org -- To help membership drive
vacation@URNA-oak.org -- vacation watch request (Full members only)

Best,
- Gordie, Brad, Craig, Ben, and Lori

ABOUT US/ABOUT THE PATROLS

The Upper Rockridge Neighborhood Association is a California nonprofit unincorporated association formed in the Fall of 2014, and is not organized for the private gain of any person. The Association is organized exclusively as a social welfare organization within the meaning of Section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code. See Website for List of Board Members.

SC3 Patrol officers are unarmed and do not use racial profiling. They are trained to observe and report suspicious or criminal activity. Their first response to any criminal or safety concern is to contact OPD, and then observe, report, and, when it is safe to do so, assist anyone in need.

IN CASE OF EMERGENCY OR URGENT SITUATION, ALWAYS CALL 9-1-1 (from landlines) OR THE OPD EMERGENCY LINE (510) 777-3211 (from cell phones) FIRST.

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