Burglaries
The South Division, like several other divisions, is currently experiencing an increase in residential break-in?’s. We are working diligently to identify and arrest suspects and working with neighborhoods to minimize risks of victimization.
In most of these cases the suspects are knocking on doors to make sure no one is at home before entering
?· There have been a few cases in which residents, for whatever reason, did not respond to the knock on the door so the suspects broke in, apparently thinking no one was home
?· When the suspects saw someone was home, they fled, often without taking anything from the residence
?· Crime analysis indicates there is no relationship among these incidents.
In many cases, the media and some citizens are inaccurately characterizing these burglaries as ?“home invasions?”, a term that certainly heightens fear even further, but fortunately doesn?’t apply to most burglaries, even if someone happens to be home when the suspect breaks in. Home invasion-style robberies are lifestyle robberies; they are seldom random. The home/residents are targeted for drugs, cash or other goods known to the suspects or it is domestic-related.
Anatomy of These Burglaries
Here?’s what we are seeing:
?· Random areas targeted
?· No pattern to time of day or day of the week
?· Suspects have tendency to use stolen or rented cars, which makes it especially challenging to address from both prevention and apprehension standpoints. However, we are also looking into working with rental car companies to prevent these individuals from being able to rent cars.
?· We are aggressively pursuing leads and presenting cases to the DA?’s office as aggressively as possible
?· Most of the suspects identified are repeat offenders. We are attempting to get some of these individuals monitored under the new electronic monitoring program
?· One of our means of addressing the issue was to increase awareness in the affected communities by emailing information about the trend to community representatives. The good news is that the information reached a lot of people. The bad news is that some of the information was taken out of context and misconstrued to the extent that it created unsubstantiated fear.
(South Division is no longer responsible for any of Madison Park, but this is related to issues we have in our community)
By Captain Rod Golding
The South Division, like several other divisions, is currently experiencing an increase in residential break-in?’s. We are working diligently to identify and arrest suspects and working with neighborhoods to minimize risks of victimization.
In most of these cases the suspects are knocking on doors to make sure no one is at home before entering
?· There have been a few cases in which residents, for whatever reason, did not respond to the knock on the door so the suspects broke in, apparently thinking no one was home
?· When the suspects saw someone was home, they fled, often without taking anything from the residence
?· Crime analysis indicates there is no relationship among these incidents.
In many cases, the media and some citizens are inaccurately characterizing these burglaries as ?“home invasions?”, a term that certainly heightens fear even further, but fortunately doesn?’t apply to most burglaries, even if someone happens to be home when the suspect breaks in. Home invasion-style robberies are lifestyle robberies; they are seldom random. The home/residents are targeted for drugs, cash or other goods known to the suspects or it is domestic-related.
Anatomy of These Burglaries
Here?’s what we are seeing:
?· Random areas targeted
?· No pattern to time of day or day of the week
?· Suspects have tendency to use stolen or rented cars, which makes it especially challenging to address from both prevention and apprehension standpoints. However, we are also looking into working with rental car companies to prevent these individuals from being able to rent cars.
?· We are aggressively pursuing leads and presenting cases to the DA?’s office as aggressively as possible
?· Most of the suspects identified are repeat offenders. We are attempting to get some of these individuals monitored under the new electronic monitoring program
?· One of our means of addressing the issue was to increase awareness in the affected communities by emailing information about the trend to community representatives. The good news is that the information reached a lot of people. The bad news is that some of the information was taken out of context and misconstrued to the extent that it created unsubstantiated fear.
(South Division is no longer responsible for any of Madison Park, but this is related to issues we have in our community)
By Captain Rod Golding
