Edmonds PD Releases Tips in Response to Increase in Burglaries

The following news release, which has been edited, was written by Sgt. Don Anderson of the Edmonds Police Department:

, residential burglary rates throughout King and Snohomish counties have increased over the past several months. The Edmonds Police Department was one of the first to notify the public of this trend and distributed a news release with some crime prevention tips in early December.

As this trend continues, we would like to again provide some helpful tips to our citizens to assist them in avoiding becoming a victim. The accompanying attachment is a list of residential burglary prevention tips. This information is also posted on the City of Edmonds' Web site.

With the defunding of our Crime Prevention Unit and the loss of an organized block watch program, our ability to disseminate this information easily to our citizens, though still a priority, has been impacted. The citizens of Edmonds are still our biggest asset in detecting and catching these thieves, and we continue to seek their assistance in the reporting of suspicious subjects, vehicles and circumstances.

As a reminder, and in addition to the information in the accompanying tip sheet, a common theme in residential burglaries is the suspect’s attempts to assure that the home is unoccupied before breaking in. Commonly, a suspect will ring the door bell or knock on the front door and, if receiving no answer, will go to a more secluded part of the house and force entry through a door or window.

In addition to making your house look occupied, if someone knocks on your door you should do something to make sure that they know someone is home, whether you choose to answer the door or not.

If you do answer the door for someone and they do not appear to have a legitimate reason for being there, call 911 and report this, providing as much detail as you can about the subject and any vehicles that they may be associated with.

The most effective tool the police have in thwarting home burglaries is the alert homeowner reporting suspicious persons or activities in their neighborhoods.

The Edmonds Police Department considers this issue a priority, and not only is it a primary focus of our patrol officers, but we have also dedicated additional investigative resources and have been working collaboratively with neighboring investigators facing the same crime trend.