Police encourage residents to protect their property

As students settle back into their Columbia homes, police suggest that students do a thorough inventory of their belongings and call the Columbia Police Department if they notice anything missing.
Over winter break, CPD worked to ensure the safety of residents' homes and property.
“Our objective was to prevent historically victimized neighborhoods from being broken into,” CPD spokeswoman Jill Wieneke said.
The department advised residents to take steps to make it look like there was someone home. Wieneke said leaving lights on or even asking someone to just walk through the recently settled snow in front of the house can deter a potential burglar.
“Not all criminals are stupid," Wieneke said. “If they have been scouting out a house for a while and realize that there are no tracks in the new fallen snow, they’re going to know someone isn’t home.”
Educating residents on how to protect themselves was one of the department’s main goals, but CPD also stepped up its patrols. Off-duty officers were given the opportunity to work overtime patrolling neighborhoods that had seen high rates of burglaries in the past. When conducting patrols, officers often used unmarked cars to conceal their identities from criminals who were scouting potential targets.
“Even if it isn’t a police officer, having a car drive through the area will deter a burglar,” Wieneke said. “They don’t want to be caught in the act by anyone.”
One of the most popular areas that CPD focused on was Rolling Rock Drive, just south of MU.
“We focused our patrols on Rolling Rock because it has a history of being burglarized, but also because it is so secluded,” Wieneke said. “Student housing was definitely on our radar.”
Student housing is especially at risk for holiday burglaries because often several neighboring houses or apartments are vacant making it easier for a burglar to make a loud entrance, like kicking in a door, without being noticed.
Residence halls were also a concern, and MU Police Department Capt. Brian Weimer said he thinks prevention efforts were successful.
“There was only one burglary reported to our department during the break period,” he said.
MUPD increased patrols around residence halls and university-owned apartments and also made it a point to secure parking lots around campus.
“We wanted to increase our patrols around not only those residence halls and apartments, but extend that to parking lots," Weimer said.
Freshman Dylan Heldman, who lives in Tiger Diggs, said MUPD told residents to take their property home with them.
“MUPD advised us to take major items like iPods, digital cameras and gaming systems home with us,” he said. “Personally, I wasn’t taking any chances. I took my PlayStation home with me.”