After a recent daytime burglary on Wabash, a crime watch e-mail circulated advising residents to take extra precautions when road construction is happening on or around their streets. Later it appeared that the construction crew and the crime were unconnected, but the e-mail’s warning reflected a lingering concern about crews working in the area. With dozens of new builds, remodels and street maintenance projects taking place on any given day, living near a work site is not something that can be avoided in our neighborhood.
Is it true that the potential for crime is higher when construction crews are working on or around our streets?
You do have more people in your neighborhood, so there’s a higher volume of traffic, and obviously there’s an increased chance for that type of thing to happen. But our city crews are often a wealth of information for us. They call in on things they see, and that’s a good thing. So you’ve got both sides of it out there.
Do police have a perception that burglaries increase with construction crews around?
We do notice them more at construction sites. New homes under construction are often prime targets for burglars because they have materials lying around, like stacks of wood, new appliances and windows stacked up, and they’re not always properly secured so they’re more likely to get toted away. We do get complaints on that, especially when you’ve got a whole neighborhood going up at once.
If these crews begin working early in the morning, then stick around until 5 p.m. or so, they can easily watch to see who is home and who isn’t. How can we feel better about leaving our houses unoccupied?
Set times where lights come on and music comes on in your house — that applies in general anyway. It also helps if people can go home during the day or have a neighbor check on your house. Say you’re getting your house painted. You may want to let your neighbors know so when they see the paint crews come up and work on the house, they know they’re supposed to be there. They should have a way to get a hold of you at work and say, ‘Hey, a paint crew or construction crew is at your house — are they’re supposed to be there?’ If not, call us and we’ll come and check it out. Working with your neighbors is important. We all have nosy neighbors, and sometimes we complain about them, but sometimes they can be really helpful. Especially in some of these neighborhoods in Lakewood that are really developing right now, and there’s construction on all sides of them. If they’re concerned, they can certainly request extra patrol in their neighborhood by calling the station — that’s always an option.
