Real facts about break-ins

By Matt Echelberry

Inquirer Reporter

You arrive home after work and find the back door ajar. In the mid­dle of the night, you hear the sound of a win­dow being shat­tered or a secu­rity alarm sound­ing off. These are moments that cre­ate fear and a sense of inse­cu­rity in your own home, but what is the real risk of your home being bro­ken into?

Just as with any other com­mu­nity, res­i­den­tial break-ins are not uncom­mon in Galion. Police Chief Brian Sater­field com­piled a Uni­form Crime Sta­tis­tics report for Galion, Bucyrus, Crest­line and Craw­ford County for the years 2010–2012. For bur­glary reports (not all of which were sub­stan­ti­ated), the Galion Police Depart­ment received 134 calls in 2010, 152 for 2011 and 148 in 2012. By com­par­i­son, Bucyrus police reported 272 bur­glary cases last year.

In Jan­u­ary of 2013, Sater­field reported there were 11 calls for the month, but again not all were sub­stan­ti­ated. He said there has been no real increase or decrease over­all, but noted a slight increase dur­ing the months of Novem­ber and Decem­ber, which is com­mon around Christ­mas time for any community.

How­ever, Sater­field wished to assure res­i­dents that his depart­ment does see where crimes are hap­pen­ing and knows how this type of crim­i­nal typ­i­cally oper­ates. Peo­ple who com­mit a break­ing and enter­ing usu­ally work in groups: One per­son com­mits the crime, another might be dri­ving and there might be a lookout.

Look­ing at where the cases are occur­ring, Sater­field said break-ins are scat­tered through­out the city and not rel­e­gated to spe­cific neigh­bor­hoods. There are no real pat­terns that his depart­ment has seen. He explained it might appear that a spe­cific street or neigh­bor­hood is being tar­geted some­times because crim­i­nals usu­ally work in a two to three block radius in a given night, then move on to another area in a sort of cat-and-mouse game. There might be mul­ti­ple calls in one area in a sin­gle night, but then another area is tar­geted the next.

What to look for

The answer might seem obvi­ous, but res­i­dents should be “aware and obser­vant” of what goes on in their area. When some­one or some­thing seems out of place, Sater­field advises to get as detailed of a descrip­tion as pos­si­ble of peo­ple and vehi­cles, and when and where sus­pi­cious activ­ity occurs.

Peo­ple should not be afraid to call the police, even when a mat­ter seems triv­ial. “We need their help; we can’t be every­where at once. All infor­ma­tion from the pub­lic can be help­ful,” Sater­field said. Even if some­thing minor such as loose change being taken from a car is reported, it helps offi­cers deter­mine if there is a larger prob­lem and look at a big­ger pic­ture of ille­gal activity.

Phone calls from res­i­dents help, even if the tip is based on a rumor. Sater­field explained that the tip can cre­ate a start­ing point for his depart­ment, and pos­si­ble sus­pects can be iden­ti­fied or ruled out. Bot­tom line: Do not be apa­thetic, the Police Depart­ment wants calls from citizens.

Res­i­dents should also com­mu­ni­cate with neigh­bors, espe­cially if they are going out of town. You can also call the Police Depart­ment to request an offi­cer to do a house check periodically.

As far as pre­vent­ing a break-in from hap­pen­ing in your home, most pre­cau­tions are com­mon sense: Lock all doors and win­dows, make sure secu­rity light­ing is work­ing prop­erly, do not put valu­ables in plain sight and make it look like some­one is home. Sater­field said that res­i­dents should sim­ply “make their homes dif­fi­cult to hit.”

When you buy new things, espe­cially elec­tron­ics, do not put the empty boxes of those prod­ucts out­side until trash pick up day. Also, mark your prop­erty in some way, such as putting a label on it or keep a data­base of the ser­ial num­bers on any impor­tant or expen­sive items.

If your home is bro­ken into, the Police Depart­ment asks that the vic­tim does not touch any poten­tial evi­dence, includ­ing point of entry, any­thing that is dam­aged or any other mate­ri­als that may have fin­ger­prints on them.

While wait­ing for police to arrive, note any­thing miss­ing or dam­aged. When an offi­cer arrives, expect some fin­ger­print dust­ing and pic­tures to be taken. If any of your belong­ings are found, in some cases the items must go through the court sys­tem first, so your prop­erty may not be returned immediately.

For more tips—on keep­ing neigh­bor­hoods safe from crime and drug activity—check out Craw­ford: 20/20 Vision’s “What to Watch For” cam­paign on its web­site (www.crawford2020.com) or by pick­ing up a pam­phlet from the Police Department.

***

If you see any sus­pi­cious activ­ity near your home, you are encour­aged to con­tact the police.

Galion Police Depart­ment: 419–468-9111

Con­fi­den­tial tip line: 419–468-3480

Craw­ford County Sheriff’s Office: 419–562-7906

You may also sign up for the new emer­gency mass noti­fi­ca­tion sys­tem, CodeRED. Go to the City of Galion web­site (http://www.ci.galion.oh.us/) and click on the logo, or call the City at 419–468-1680.

Posted by Matt Echelberry on Feb 8 2013. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.