News

Kent Police in South Kent have launched a burglary initiative to disrupt and target offenders and deter crime.

Throughout December, as well as the normal police response and attendance to burglary crime, two extra detectives from Tactical CID will respond to calls where houses have recently been broken into. The aim is to gather evidence to identify offenders as quickly as possible, and to provide reassurance and support to victims.

Officers will also be patrolling areas that have seen a slight rise in burglaries in the past several weeks including Whitfield/Temple Ewell in Dover; Hawkinge in Shepway and Godington Park/Great Chart and Mersham/Sevington in Ashford.

Kent Police has circulated information to all patrol and neighbourhood officers about offenders who are suspected of breaking into people's homes. Officers will take advantage of every opportunity to target offenders and carry out search warrants to disrupt their criminal activity.

Police believe that burglary offenders see the Christmas period as an opportunity to commit crime, and this initiative is designed to tackle those opportunist thieves.

Kent Police is also hoping to raise public awareness of what people can do to reduce the risk of becoming a victim of a break-in or theft. Neighbourhood officers have been giving out leaflets and displaying posters in public areas.

The message is that people can take some simple steps to deter thieves by keeping Christmas presents and other valuables safely locked away and out of sight:

· avoid leaving presents or your sat nav in your car
· close your curtains in the evenings so thieves aren't tempted by the presents under your Christmas tree
· use a timer to switch your lights and radio on and off to make your house look occupied while you're out
· lock doors and windows and avoid leaving bags and car keys near windows
· don't leave the boxes that gifts have come packaged in outside your house by your wheelie bin - the box alone can tell someone what sort of property is inside your house
· avoid keeping large amounts of cash at home

Detective Sergeant Pip Richardson who is heading up the initiative said: "South Kent has the lowest burglary rate in the county, with 4.1 per 1,000 households in October 2009.

"The chances of being a victim of burglary in South Kent is relatively low, but we are not complacent, we know burglars and thieves can use the festive season to commit crime and we will we working rigorously to keep burglary and crime down," he concluded.