Thursday, April 22, 2010

Lack thereof

Last night was our monthly ACUDAT meeting, where we discuss the highlights of current crime trends and patterns in Lincoln.  I must say, that the highlight of last night's discussion of crime was the lack thereof.  We seem to be down in a pretty significant trough right now--which is, of course, good!  If there is one thing I've learned during my career, though, it is this: nothing lasts.  With spring weather finally upon us, I would expect the activity to pick up significantly.  Here are our first quarter crime statistics:


Crime may be a little slow right now, but it certainly hasn't come to a complete halt. Among the trends under discussion last night were residential garage burglaries, thefts of copper, thefts of golf equipment, thefts of license plate thefts, and thefts of high-dollar commercial outdoor power equipment.  We are anticipating increases in certain types of crime as the economy recovers, and we discussed new construction starts in particular as an area of vulnerability. As always, prevention efforts were on the agenda: six of the eleven auto thefts in the past two weeks were cases where the keys were left in the car.  Eight of the 43 residential burglaries were cases in which the garage door was standing open.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Are you running that PoP project on open garage doors again this year?People sure seem to love leaving them up, forgetting past lessons.

Anonymous said...

LFA ought to be going up soon, with the impending rec trailhead LFAs and people leaving their windows down to avoid having a hot car when they return.

Watchful said...

I heard a rumor that the media is doing a story about the garage doors being up and of course, the associated 3 am knocks at the door.

It sure would be easier of there were slower times, in terms of call volume, earlier in the evening. It is much harder to awaken a person during REM sleep than it is to stir someone watching Letterman.

Anonymous said...

I bought a hard wired camera system to monitor my garage. I plan on hooking it up this weekend. I have considered cutting a deal with HBO or another one of the Cable TV companies. I'd bet my garage is a lot more entertaining than current TV reality shows.

Gun Nut

ARRRRG!!!! said...

It might just be me, but I think there has been a decrease in crime since this happened.

Anonymous said...

Probally should layoff some cops and save the city some money. No sense paying these guys with nothing to do.

Yoni said...

43 residential burglaries.
Eight of which were open garage doors.

In much of the world, most people don't even report crime because they can't afford the bribes underpaid police officers need just to buy rice. Even in some places in the USA, police aren't much interested in taking reports about low grade crimes.

In paradise there is no crime at all. We aren't quite paradise, but I'm very thankful to be so near.

Anonymous said...

Thefts of license plate thefts, eh? Now we have people stealing stolen license plates. What a world we live in.

:-D

Anonymous said...

Can we get a stat on FBI Agents misplacing ammo clips?

Anonymous said...

Ah, you are knocking on doors again this year. Too many folks have a defect in the brainbox that somehow prevents them from perceiving the possibility of their becoming a crime victim, if they've never yet been a crime victim.

That's the mindset we'd expect from an animal with a small cerebellum and little capability for rational thought, one that makes all decisions based only on their own experience, apparently unable to learn from tales about the experiences of others, news stories and such things. Some folks have to get their nose broken before they see the value of keeping their hands up to protect their face, so to speak.

Steve said...

I'm getting a bit tired of people who accuse crime victims of being stupid, or worse, for not closing doors, locking cars, etc. What's stupid, is barely slapping the wrists of those responsible for the crimes when we do catch them. They're back on the street in no time (if they were ever off it in the first place) doing more crime.

If you happened to notice, 35 of those burglaries did not have open garage doors. Are those victims stupid, too, because they didn't have a moat and 10' fences with concertina wire around their houses? If these scum bags want your property badly enough, they'll do whatever it takes to get it. If they are going to come into my garage and steal stuff, I'd just as soon they do it through an open, or unlocked door, rather than breaking a window or kicking in a door. At least, I won't have to spend more time and money to fix them.

We should all be thankful there are people "stupid" enough (or brave enough) to leave their doors open and keys in their cars. If the thieves truly go for the easiest targets, then those people are keeping the thieves away from the rest of us. When everyone locks up and closes doors, the thieves are just as likely to strike at your house, or mine, or wherever they think they'll score big.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, yeah, I know we should be able to leave a clear plastic bag full of money in our open ragtop car, park it anywhere for a week, come back, and have it still be there, along with the ten gold bars we left on the seat, blah, blah, blah. When you find the perfect world where things are like that, tell us, because we'll all move there. Until then, we live in this imperfect world. and it's wise to anticipate the moves of the enemy (criminals). It's like putting on a pre-emergent crabgrass treatment; crabgrass is out there (though it's probably absent from that perfect world you dream of so passionately), and it'll come sooner or later, if you're not proactive - just like crime will come. Don't be a soft target, because that is stupid.

Anonymous said...

Crime victim's aren't being treated as if they are stupid if a cop wakes them up gives them a quick crime prevention tip in the middle of the night. Most of them did not realize the garage door was left open.

That's the theory behind crime prevention. Make your property less appealing to the thieves than your neighbor's property and the thief leaves you alone and hits your neighbor.

If all of your neighbors lock up their property, your neighborhood is less attractive to thieves so theoretically they will go to a different neighborhood to steal.

If every neighborhood does what it can to prevent crime and make the entire city less attractive to thieves than other cities then maybe the thieves will leave town and go to a different city.

I know, it's not going to happen, but it doesn't hurt to try. Why make it too easy for the crooks?

Anonymous said...

I think Steve makes a good point. I have been having "senior" moments more often lately. The other night I was working in my garage until midnight. I was tired and I put away all my tools and I thought I hit the switch to close the garage door. After a hot shower I climbed into bed and then I started wondering if I left the garage door open I couldn't get to sleep from worrying about it yet I was too tired (lazy) to get up and go check it. I was up before sunrise the next morning and it was closed. However I had left the light on. I am installing a monitoring system this weekend and I will have a small monitor on the nightstand just so I can keep an eye on things. Now if I could just find a German Shepherd that ate like a Pekignese I could have the ultimate in garage security.

Gun Nut

Anonymous said...

Gun Nut-I'd rather have a Pekignese that bites like a German Shepherd or a German Shepherd that poos like a Pekignese for easy maintainance. Having neither, I guess I just need to be careful and close my garage door, lock my car, and set the booby-traps before I go to sleep at night.

256

Anonymous said...

German Shepherd that poos like a Pekignese for easy maintainance??
Also this kind of dog makes for a great
"PLEASE DO NOT WALK ON GRASS SIGN"