The Mountain View Police Department on Tuesday will offer an educational opportunity for residents plagued by an increase in the number of car and home burglaries.
The initiative is slated to teach residents about what burglars look for when they peek into homes and cars as well as inform residents about how they can do to prevent burglaries from occurring in the first place.
When it comes to car break-ins, folks are first warned not to leave anything valuable in their vehicles. Police say it would also be a good idea to not leave anything at all inside cars.
"Leaving gym bags and diaper bags and they say, 'Well, there's not really anything of value in there so I don't mind if it gets stolen,'" Det. Andrew Wong with Mountain View police said. "But what they don't realize is that thieves don't understand that, so they will break in thinking that there might be valuables in that gym bag or diaper bag. That makes you susceptible to becoming a victim."
Property crime across some Bay Area counties has actually been dropping over the past several years, according to data from the Center of Juvenile and Criminal Justice.
Between 2010 and 2016, property crime fell 9.5 percent in Alameda County, 13 percent in Contra Costa County, 2 percent in Santa Clara County and 8 percent in San Mateo County.
San Francisco has not been so fortunate. The city by the bay has witnessed a 35 percent jump in property crime during that span.
Local
Local communities such as Mountain View, Livermore and Los Alto have also seen spikes in property crime, but an analyst with the Center of Juvenile and Criminal Justice says police departments can help reduce those numbers through community programs.
Mountain View police on Tuesday will host a question-and-answer event regarding auto and home burglaries at 7 p.m. at the police auditorium on Villa Street.
