Car Burglaries....Prevention Efforts Continue and So Does the Crime

Here is an email exchange between a concerned property owner who had resident's car windows busted to get at the goods in the car.  Frustrating, but together we can lick this one! 

From: XXXXX

Sent: Monday, October 29, 2012 7:50 AM
To: Gordon Ramsay
Cc: XXXXXXX

Subject: Car-break ins

Gordon, I spoke with my property manager this morning.  We have had 20 car break-ins at XXXXXXXXX in the last month.    I understand these are difficult but do you have any suggestions?     I think XXX   was trying to line up  XXX  and we have sent repeated warnings to our residents about not leaving belongings in their cars.    Still – this sort of thing happening on a weekly/monthly basis makes us all look bad. 

Thanks for your help,

XXXX

__________________________________________________________________________________

From: Gordon Ramsay

To:  XXXXXX

Hi XXXXX,

Preventing and reducing car burglaries have been a major focus for us over the last couple of years.  We are constantly trying to educate the public and create awareness through news releases, news articles, blogs, social media, community meetings, fliers and recruiting citizen patrols.  Additionally, we added a wanted property crimes person of the week that often focuses on wanted car burglars.  We have also used “bait” cars in sting efforts, added foot patrols during problem times in problem areas and target our worst offenders.   

We have been successful in catching a lot of the people responsible for this, only to find out they have been released from jail and are out committing more crime.   I have spent a lot of time at the State Legislature trying to increase penalties for this crime - as they are very weak.  

So, what more can we do?  We need people to help us.  We need people not to leave valuables in their cars, form citizen patrols and block watches, report suspicious activity, support us in our efforts to increase the penalties for this crime and let our local judges know the impact this crime has and the need to take it seriously.

I have asked the area commander, Leigh Wright to have a community officer contact you and work with your staff on how we can work together to accomplish the police department’s main goal-prevention of crime.

As always, feel free to call me anytime if we are not meeting your expectations.

Respectfully,

Gordon Ramsay