Andrew Hamil and Mike Foster of Central Patrol reported to the city council on the last crime trends.
Chain down your lawnmowers, weed choppers and brush trimmers.
Thieves are burglarizing garages throughout Midtown, police reported Wednesday.
Andrew Hamil, community interaction officer for Central Patrol, introduced himself and reported to the new city council neighborhoods and public safety committee.
Hamil, who started the job in May, interacts directly with individuals and business in the patrol area, which covers most of Midtown. He replaces James Schriever in the position.
All crime is pretty much down throughout the area except for a rash of thievery from garages, he said.
Sgt. Mike Foster, supervisor of property crimes, asked for public help in catching the suspects. Noticing and reporting simple things, like a model of car with a license plate in the window, can lead to arrest of suspects, he said.
For perspective, Foster said, there have been 485 burglaries of all kinds in central patrol this year, with maybe up to half of them involving garages and vacant buildings.
That compares to almost 1,400 burglaries a year when he started the job seven years ago, he said.
Asked why property crimes are down so much in central patrol, he noted that they were also down nationwide.
His officers have also made it a policy to target repeat offenders who commit most of the burglaries, he said, but the garage burglars do not appear to be among them.
Do we know if these garage thieves are targeting certain neighborhoods? Setup sting operations. A lot of foot traffic? Or are they in vehicles? We should be more proactive and perhaps residents are forgetting to monitor for strangers in their areas. During the warmer weather months, there are lots of home projects & rehabs going on, so many times it becomes difficult to discern who is on your street that actually has business there, or is visiting neighbors.