How to protect yourself from car burglary

As a police department, we have strived to increase the public’s perception of safety and I believe we have accomplished this with the results of the latest citizen survey. While the job of criminal apprehension is the main goal of the police department, crime detection and crime prevention is a partnership between the citizens of Maricopa and your police department.

Recently, the east side of our city experienced an increase in vehicle related crimes. A couple of cars were stolen and several cars were burglarized. While the explanation varies on why people commit crimes, i.e. economy or mischief related to age, there are some major steps we can do as citizens and law enforcement to help reduce or eliminate this type of crime.

The first and most important component in the prevention or reduction of this type of crime is to lock your car in a garage when not in use. Many of us have converted our garages into secondary storage containers, housing items of very low value or items which used infrequently. For most of us, the family car(s) is the second largest investment we have, after our house, yet many of us leave our cars out in driveways, which expose them to the criminal element and Mother Nature. If at all possible, clean out your garage and put your car inside.

Secondly, please do not leave valuables stored in your car. Numerous theft reports indicate that items such as IPOD’s, computers, cash and other valuables were left in the cars, many of them in plain sight. We must remember we live in a free and mobile society. Criminals, many of whom live in neighboring communities, sometimes cruise through our neighborhoods at night, looking for easy targets. As law enforcement officers, we must develop reasonable suspicion (usually a traffic stop) to stop a vehicle, which makes it difficult to find “bad guys” driving around the city. 

The police department continues to work with our community to make it the safest place to live. We are increasing our patrols, assigning property crime follow-up to investigations quicker and stepping up prevention programs such as curfew enforcement. Additionally, we have instituted a new crime prevention program titled, “Maricopa on Patrol”. This is a cooperative effort to get all of Maricopa involved in crime prevention. For more information and a downloadable brochure, please visit the crime prevention webpage on the Maricopa Police Department website. We also ask that when you see any crime in progress, that you contact us by calling 911.

Kirk M. Fitch is chief of the Maricopa Police Department

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