North Wales Police working to tackle Christmas burglaries

Freedom of Information data obtained by the Leader reveal the number of residential and business/commercial burglaries recorded by police in Flintshire and Wrexham from December 24 to 31 last year.

In Wrexham, there were 11 residential burglaries and two commercial.

Whereas in Flintshire, there were three commercial and three residential.

Sergeant Sue Carrington is leading on North Wales Police's "We Don’t Buy Crime (WDBC)" campaign - the force's biggest crime prevention initiative in its history.

Supported by the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner, it aims to tackle what the force call "serious and acquisitive crime" which, in the main, involves burglaries - by using forensic marking.  

Sgt Carrington said: "We give all victims of burglary a pack containing smart water and crime prevention advice, but in addition to that we also give up to 10 surrounding properties a prevention pack containing similar crime prevention advice and a UV marking pen.  

"This has been going since around April of this year by our local neighbourhood policing teams and so far well over a thousand properties in North Wales have received one of the packs mentioned above.

"All areas have patrol plans in place during this time they run from mid October right through to January known as 'Op Twilight' these are evening patrols helping to identify properties that may be more at risk as they have no lights on and it is obvious that people are not in, they have been putting leaflets through peoples doors giving advice on how to protect their properties.

"In addition to this we are also doing the same for business burglaries and our team of 10 WDBC officers (one for each of the 10 districts in North Wales) will visit the businesses and provide crime prevention advice and a similar pack with signage.  

"The WDBC officers have had additional training in crime prevention.

"Finally with the help of our rural crime team, we have been giving a special crime prevention pack out to all farms over the next three years (around 6,000) and we are well on track to achieving this.  

"They will get smart water and special signage to display.

"Out of all of the three different pillars of work mentioned above over 2500 properties have had a crime prevention pack over half of these are farms."

The same officers have been busy attending groups, shows, fetes, fairs,  farmers markets and schools giving out crime prevention advice to their communities since June and have engaged with thousands of people across North Wales. 

Paula Stewart of the We Don’t Buy Crime team giving out advice at Asda (Image: NWP)Sgt Carrington explained this will continue over the next few months where they will be doing “pop ups” outside busy venues such supermarkets and electrical stores

This also supports shops acting as a deterrent to would be shoplifters as they are met with my team as soon as they enter the shop.

Here are some tips from North Wales Police with regards to security:

• Lock all doors and close all windows before leaving the house.
• Lock front and back doors, even when you are in the house and particularly overnight.
• Don’t leave valuable items on view.
• Don’t leave car keys near to a letter box where a burglar can reach through and steal them.
• Lock garden gates and side entrances.
• Don’t leave anything lying about that a burglar could use to break-in to your home.
• Don’t leave wheelie bins where they could be used by someone to climb over a wall or fence.
• Mark your belongings with a UV pen or forensic property marking technology such as SmartWater.
• Make sure your home looks occupied, an empty home is far more tempting for a burglar. Use timer switches for lights and noise from a radio.
• Consider installing a burglar alarm and outside security lighting. These deter burglars.
• Be vigilant; report any unusual activity, people or vehicles in your area to the police.

The Sergeant added: "Anyone living in North Wales can obtain a big discount on smart water with a unique code offered by emailing into our mailbox wedontbuycrime@northwales.police.uk  (reduced from around £60 to £25).

"[It's an] ideal Christmas present for those awkward to get people!"