City’s break-in boom ebbs, but police remain vigilant

While residential break-ins remain the top crime concern for Calgarians, police numbers show an encouraging drop from 2015.

Presented to council earlier this week, the 2016 Calgary Police Business Plan Report lists 2,736 home break-ins reported last year — still above the five-year average but a nearly a 20 per cent drop from 2015’s sky-high property crime rates.

Despite this drop, Staff Sgt. Matt Baker of the centralized break-andenter unit said home burglaries remain high on their priority list.

“It’s of a concern to us, it’s a priority for us,” he said.

“It’s an intrusive crime ... the property can either be recovered or purchased again, but it’s the sense of security the victim loses. The violation.”

Residential B & Es topped 2016’s Calgary police commission citizen’s survey, with 34 per cent of respondents listing home burglaries as their No. 1 crime concern — ahead of illegal drug activity (19 per cent), gangs (16 per cent), non-vehicle theft (13 per cent) and traffic violations (11 per cent).

Stats suggest home break-ins saw a steep decline at the end of last year, with fourth-quarter numbers falling sharply between October and December 2016 to below five-year averages for the first time since 2014.

On the front lines of Calgary’s burglar battle is the centralized break-and-enter unit, responsible for examining trends and gathering intelligence on break-ins across the city — using that information to zero in on the factors and bad guys behind them.

“It’s interesting in the MOs (modus operandi, or method of operation) they tend to use,” Baker said.

“We can relate it to certain habitual offenders, which helps us follow that trend.”

One such trend that cropped up earlier this year was the ‘pillow case’ series of break-ins, so-named for the offender’s consistent use of the items to transport their illgotten loot.

Identifying such habits is invaluable for investigators, drawing common threads between seemingly unrelated break-ins to link them to single suspects.

“We can look back at previous offenders and see if they’re already in custody or active in our intelligence picture,” he said — adding that despite popular portrayals, such commonalities are rarely ‘gimmicks’ dreamed up by wouldbe burglars.

“It’s habit, it’s what they know ... it’s been successful for them in the past, so they stick with it.”

Another trend was home burglaries with an extremely specific, albeit unusual target: frozen food.

“We had about 20 of those, where we had meat specifically stolen from freezers,” Baker said, saying other items in the home were left untouched.

Such a trend is certainly unusual, and parallels numerous high-profile commercial meat thefts over the past year.

In March, more than a thousand kilograms of high-end meats were stolen from boutique food distributor Fine Food Stop.

While that and other heists are still under investigation, Baker said products from such heists are usually resold to city restaurants.

Making your home uninviting prey to burglars isn’t a difficult task.

Many burglaries are crimes of opportunity, Baker said — with many prowlers gaining access with garage door openers stolen from insecure vehicles.

Investigators also patrol at-risk neighbourhoods, pointing out vulnerabilities to often thankful residents.

“If we can’t get a hold of the owner, then go about securing it for them,” he said.

Simple strategies include locking doors and windows, and considering security lights or alarm systems.

“You don’t want to go too far so that it controls your life,” he said.

“But often the basics are enough.”