Lock doors and fight crime
Published 9:46 am Tuesday, July 28, 2015
After looking at results from a community survey and recent crime data, Mercer Island’s city staff and Police Department (MIPD) are starting a “Lock It or Lose It” campaign to encourage residents to lock doors and windows before leaving their homes.
The MIPD, seeking to reduce the number of residential burglaries on the Island, first wanted to understand the motivators for, and barriers to, this simple behavior.
A nine-question, online citizen survey was conducted, and about 600 Islanders responded. The survey results, along with the past five years of MIPD report data, indicate that the primary point of entry for residential burglars on Mercer Island is an unlocked door. Almost half of home burglaries annually are at homes where a door or window was left unlocked.
Building on past educational initiatives around this risk, the MIPD is developing an outreach campaign to increase the number of residents who “always lock all doors when away from home.”
The Island’s burglary rate is comparable to other nearby jurisdictions, but the MIPD believes that with citizens’ help, it can achieve the lowest burglary rate in the region.
The city will do a soft launch of the “Lock It or Lose It” campaign at National Night Out on Aug. 4. Contact Police Commander Leslie Burns at 206-275-7900 with questions.
