26
Jun
2015
By Calvin at 08:58 GMT, 8 years ago
I think this is the third or fourth time I’ve brought this matter to people’s attention. Why? Because it drives my former police colleagues nuts!
This time it’s our friends in Durham Constabulary who’ve put the message out. This is what they’ve said:
Nearly 500 vehicles had items on display that would catch the eye of a passing thief; that’s what police found when neighbourhood teams went out testing car security this week.
Over the last seven days local officers, PCSO's and volunteers have been carrying out patrols across County Durham and Darlington to see how security-minded owners are being.
If the officers noticed something that would draw the eye of a criminal, they will be following it up with advisory letters to let the owners know and to urge them to be more careful in future.
Across the force area a total of 482 vehicles were found to have valuable left on dashboards, seats or somewhere else a thief would have been able to spot them. The items left on show by careless owners included mobile phones and iPods, satnav systems, shopping bags, purses, jewellery, cash and even a set of golf clubs!
TCPW Comment: We all want lower crime levels, because it saves us money and grief and saves spending from the public purse – policing, court time, probation service, prison service and so on. It also helps our environment, because it is often forgotten that broken car windows need to be replaced and that means unnecessary energy use to manufacture them – and then there’s the fuel used for the visit from the auto glass guy and the petrol used by the police car. It’s pretty amazing when you add it all up and all for the sake of something being left on view on the back seat of a car.
So when you think ‘crime’ think ‘environment’ too or ‘The Carbon Cost of Crime’.
Source Durham Constabulary https://www.durham.police.uk/news-and-events/Pages/News%20Articles/Hundreds-of-drivers-leaving-valuables-on-display.aspx
Unnecessary crimes: http://thecrimepreventionwebsite.com/home-security-assessment/736/opportunity-for-crime/
