Crime prevention strategies
Burglary prevention strategies
Police have a message for burglary victims and would-be targets in east Vancouver: Wake up.
In two separate incidents that occurred in the last week, burglars boosted items from residences in which people were sleeping on a couch and in a bedroom, respectively.
A police spokeswoman said burglaries are up in the city and there’s concern in particular about “District 3,” which runs from Andresen Road on the west to Interstate 205 on the east. It was there that at least six residential burglaries — including those of the slumbering victims — were reported in the last week.
“They didn’t even realize they’d been burglarized until the next morning,” said Kim Kapp, spokeswoman for the Vancouver Police Department. “It’s really important for individuals to be much more vigilant about home security.”
Burglaries in the District 3 area were up 41 percent in February compared to a year ago, a jump from 17 to 24 thefts at residences police say are often poorly secured.
This marks the second consecutive month police have made it a point to call on people to put more effort into protecting their property.
“We have to as a community start getting together and focusing on crime prevention,” Kapp said. “We want people to be proactive.”
While the focus of late is on District 3, statistics show burglaries are up citywide.
Through April, residential and commercial burglaries are up 5 percent over last year and 12 percent from 2009, according to police data. In District 2 — Interstate 5 to Andresen Road — there were 29 break-ins in February 2010 and 37 in February this year, a 28 percent hike.
Kapp said volunteers with the police department’s Neighbors on Watch program are patrolling neighborhoods almost every day. Active as they are, Kapp said, there’s only so much they can do.
That’s where it falls to residents to guard their own homes and neighborhoods. Kapp said doing as little as peering out windows to look for suspicious activity can deter burglaries.
The city’s east and west precincts both had a crime prevention specialist until 2010 to help residents set up and maintain neighborhood watch groups. The positions were casualties of budget cuts.
Although there are still neighborhood police officers assigned to each district, Kapp said people have to put in more work to set up groups in their areas.
“The information is still out there,” she said.
Police say burglars are taking advantage of unlocked doors and unsecured windows to swipe jewelry, coins and small electronics. Unlocked sliding glass doors make for an especially easy entrance out of sight of watchful neighbors.
An increase in burglaries commonly accompanies warming weather, likely because residents are opening doors and windows to cool houses. Warm weather, of course, is relative in Clark County, where a day without rain can be seen as cause to put on shorts.
Single-family homes and apartment complexes, alike, have been targeted. “They’re very random,” Kapp said of the burglaries.
