Cactus Village Community

BLOCKWATCH NEWS ...by Roger Jenkins 07/2003

Jul 07, 2003

Officer Jim Gwyn addressed the North Glen Square Association a short while ago and discussed prevention of burglary and auto theft. He noted that there is a 5% clearance rate for burglaries. (The clearance rate is the number of arrests compared with the number of reported crimes.) Generally fingerprinting does not work, because of the difficulty of getting good prints and matching them with suspects. Also, the sheer volume of burglaries makes resolution difficult.
What can we do to prevent and bring clearance to burglaries?

Officer Gwyn suggested the following:
1. Write down the serial numbers of all property that you own. Keep the serial numbers in a secure place. If the property is stolen, the serial numbers provide an easy way for the police to track the disposition of the property through pawn shops. This may lead to all arrest.

2. Get a dog. Even a small dog may make enough noise to cause a thief to move on to another location.

3. Keep the garage locked. Many thefts occur because the garage door was open, and the thief saw something he wanted and took it.

4. Install motion lights. leave lights on at night. Lights discourage a thief because they make his activity visible to others.

5. Know your neighbors. Report any suspicious activity?’ that you see. Know them well enough so that they will recognize Suspicious activity at your house.

6. Don?’t leave your keys and purse in your car. (Also, keep your car locked.) thief who breaks into your car to get your purse will probably have your name and address also. Since he has your keys, your car, and your address, he can take the car and burglarize your house, know lug that you aren?’t there.

7. Report suspicious activity to Crimestop. Suspicious activity includes:
a. Vehicles making slow laps through the neighborhood.
b. Late night walkers and bike riders.
c. People in the alley who aren?’t neighbors taking out the trash and aren?’t employees of the utility companies. Office Gwyn encouraged calls to Crimestop for inappropriate alley traffic. He noted that the person in the alley may be the same person who just committed a burglary in the neighborhood earlier that day. A police stop to investigate alley traffic may be just what is needed to help tie that suspect to the previous burglary.
8. Report potential crimes in progress to 911. Potential crimes in progress include persons entering your neighbor?’s property (over the fence or through the gate) when the neighbor is not at home. (Of course, you have to know your neighbor well enough to know that it isn?’t him.)...☺