{"id":367,"date":"1998-05-23T02:08:27","date_gmt":"1998-05-23T02:08:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dev.manoli.ca\/prevention-burglaries-on-the-rise-2\/"},"modified":"2019-10-19T17:30:59","modified_gmt":"2019-10-19T17:30:59","slug":"prevention-burglaries-on-the-rise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/manoli.ca\/fr\/prevention-burglaries-on-the-rise\/","title":{"rendered":"Prevention: Burglaries on the Rise – May 1998"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Gazette – May 23, 1998<\/strong><\/p>\n

Breaking and entering is on the rise, as violent crimes like armed robbery and murder are de\u00adcreasing. The number of break-ins on the island of Montreal rose in 1996 and 1997, after several years of decline.<\/p>\n

There’s a similar trend across Canada. Residen\u00adtial break-ins increased slightly in 1995 and 1996, according to Statistics Canada. It’s hard to say why, senior analyst Rebecca Kong said, especially since crime in general declined in the frrst part of the 1990s.
\nBut police officers suggest two possibilities.<\/p>\n

First, although the maximum penalty for breaking and entering is a life term, the sentences are usual\u00adly shorter than for crimes like armed robbery or murder. ln 1993-94, the average sentence in Canada for a break-in was just about eightmonths.<\/p>\n

\u00ab\u00a0They perceive it as an easier risk because the punishment is a lot less severe than if someone does something like physically assault a person,\u00a0\u00bb sa id Paul Chablo, commanding officer of MUC,\u00a0\u00bb police Station 1 in Kirkland.<\/p>\n

The second reason is simple: they always want money.<\/p>\n

\u00ab\u00a0They look for money, jewelry, sound systems, CDs, anything that you can carry out gets stolen,\u00a0\u00bb sa id commanding officer Jean Chatigny, whose station in Notre Dame de Gr\u00e2ce recorded 169 break- ins in March, up from 146 the year before.<\/p>\n

\u00ab\u00a0They do it to get money, that’s usually why. What is used for? Who knows.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n

Drugs are a good bet, but there are other rea\u00adsons, Bertrand said. One gang the task force craeked was robbing West Island homes for mon\u00adey to spend at the casino. Another group – dubbed the Yuppie Gang because they live with their par\u00adents in a tony DoUard des Ormeaux neighbour\u00adhood – do it for spending money.<\/p>\n

While MUC police have several programs ta try to prevent break-ins, they also use oecasianal task forces like the one Bertrand heads to nab the people who do them. Such groups are set up from time to time to focus on particular crime prob\u00adlems.<\/p>\n

The task force is made up of seven ta 10 police officers from West Island police stations. Theil’ job is to identify break-in suspects and try to ar\u00adl’est them, which, in one case, meant talling them through thigh-high snowdrifts in the Senneville woods one night last winter to catch them in the aet. The caps get their leads from investigating break – ins, and then start following their suspects.<\/p>\n

Bertrand, an affable 49-year-old who wears fad\u00adedjeans and a T-shirt, carries mug shots of sus\u00adpects in beige folders in his briefcase. The pho\u00adtographs are testament to hours of long, boring stakeouts spent observing \u00ab\u00a0rodents\u00a0\u00bb as they meet at their \u00ab\u00a0rat’s nest\u00a0\u00bb to plan their crimes.<\/p>\n

\u00ab\u00a0We were following one guy around, just one, and within three weeks had found the rat’s nest\u00ada local park where he and his friends hang out,\u00a0\u00bb Bertrand said. \u00ab\u00a0We were able to connect them to several robberies in one neighbourhood.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n

At the MUC police west command centre on Thimens Blvd. in St. Laurent, analyst Marc Arnold keeps track of breakein suspects using a hand-drawn chart stuck on ffie wall. A few suUen faces stare out from mug shots, but only a handful of them have ever been arrested. Most are teenagers or in their early 20s and almost all are male. They’re suspected of dozens of break-ins around the WestIsland.<\/p>\n

Arnold reviews the reports that patrolling po\u00adlice officers take when they answer a burglary call. He laoks for similarities in things like the modus operandi – or procedure – that burglars use, and then links like cases together.<\/p>\n

\u00ab\u00a0One thing we’ve noticed about break-ins is that there’s always the same patterns for the same suspects,\u00a0\u00bb Chablo said. \u00ab\u00a0If the guy likes go\u00b7 ing through patio doors with a screwdriver, he’s going ta go through a patio door with a screwdriv\u00ader. He won’t go through the front or back door.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n

Most of the people committing break- ins on the West Island are teenagers, he said, but added it represents \u00ab\u00a02 pel’ cent\u00a0\u00bb of the area’s adolescent population. Chatigny, who l’uns Station 11 in N.D.G., saidrobbery suspects there are \u00ab\u00a0your av\u00aderageJoes.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n

\u00ab\u00a0They can be anywhere from 15 to 55 years old,\u00a0\u00bb he said. \u00ab\u00a0There’s no typical robber for us. We’ve got diversity here.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n

Break-ins anywhere in Montreal are rm’ely the workof professionals, said Constable George ManoH, a crime-prevention officer at Station 27 in north-end Ahwltsic.<\/p>\n

\u00ab\u00a0This is a crime of opportunity,\u00a0\u00bb he said. \u00ab\u00a0A lot of this is people looking to break into places to be able to get things that sell pretty quick to get drug money or whatever else. We’re not talking about rocket scientists here.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n

But some are clever enough to take precau\u00adtions. The Yuppie Gang – five teenagers including three males and two females – put Scotch tape on their fingers to make sure the y wouldn’t leave
\nprints behind.<\/p>\n

\u00ab\u00a0But ii’s not really organized crime,\u00a0\u00bb Chablo said. \u00ab\u00a0We have a lot of situations where it was just people going through the back door, going through the whole place to see what they could get and sell off and make some money.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n

Although most of the break-ins reported to po\u00adlice at Station 27, on Lajeunesse S1. near Henri Bourassa Blvd., list money and jewelry as the most sought-after items, stranger things have been stolen, ManoU said – including a sewing ma\u00adchine, and frozen food taken from a freezer.<\/p>\n

A Plateau Mont Royal resident, whose apart\u00adment was robbed in Jamlary, lost more than 90 CDs, a CD player, camera equipment and his watch. The thieves climbed up the fire escape be\u00adhind his building and kicked in the back door of his apartment while he and his girlfriend were out for a walk.<\/p>\n

Like other break-in victims interviewed for this story, he didn’t want his name published be\u00adcause he feared the people who robbed him will come back again.<\/p>\n

\u00ab\u00a0You feel kind of strange that someone’s been walking around in your apartment,\u00a0\u00bb said the man, whose mother’s Ahuntsic home was aIso re\u00adcently robbed. \u00ab\u00a01 was really pissed off at the peo\u00adple that do this kind of stuff. Ifs got to be Olle of the lowest things that people can do.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n

He had insurance, which was a good thing, be\u00adcause he never got his possessions back.<\/p>\n

Once the craoks have your stuff, they can sell it at a number of places. Some choose flea markets or pawn shops, while others sell direct to bar or d\u00e9panneur patrons. People who buy goods that way, Chatigny said, are committing a crime.<\/p>\n

\u00ab\u00a0If someone comes up to you in a bar and off ers to seil you a video camera for $50, and you know the real priee is more like $800 or $900, weil, you’re buying stolen material,\u00a0\u00bb he said.<\/p>\n

When police recover stolen goods, ifs often hard to return them to their rightful owners. Peo\u00adple rarely keep the seriaI numbers of their televi\u00adsions, VCRs or computers, and without them it’s hard to prove ownership, analyst Arnold said. And sometimes thieves me the seriaI number off the item, or replace it with a seriaI number from something else.<\/p>\n

One of the crime-prevention programs police promote is called Operation Identification, which encourages people to engrave their driver’s Ii\u00adcense numbers on to valuables. They can do it with a special engraving pen available at police stations, and cops say it is a good way to get stolen goods returned.<\/p>\n

\u00ab\u00a0With a driver’s license, 1 can punch it into the computer, and look, your name comes up,\u00a0\u00bb Arnold said, demonstrating the results in less than 30 seconds. \u00ab\u00a0Then we look to see if you re\u00adported a robbery, and we cau return the goods.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n

Manoli and other crime-prevention officers vis\u00adit people whose homes and businesses have been broken into and show them how to avoid being a victim again. That can be anything from putting in new locks to installing unbreakable glass in windows and doors.<\/p>\n

\u00ab\u00a0If (thieves) see a weakness somewhere, then they go back and work on that,\u00a0\u00bb Manoli said. \u00ab\u00a0It’s always the law of least effort.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n

Something police forces across the country have realized is that it is oft\u00e8n the same small group of criminals committing break-in after break-in. Many forces have adopted programs targeting repeat offenders hoping to lower the crime rate.<\/p>\n

ln Quebee City, a four-month investigation by a half-dozen municipal police forces and the S\u00fbret\u00e9 du Qu\u00e9bec led ta 14 people being arrested Thurs\u00adday, suspects in more than 50 break- ins in homes and businesses .<\/p>\n

Back in Kirkland, Chablo read from a list of 17 potential suspects B\u00e8rtrand compiled recently.<\/p>\n

\u00ab\u00a0If we arrested everyone on this list, we proba\u00adbly wouldn’t have another break-in in this area,\u00a0\u00bb Chablo said.<\/p>\n

\u00ab\u00a0When you arrest someone, and you look at the MO, and statements, fingerprints, other evidence we have, often We are able to relate them to 10, 20, sometimes 30 break – ins.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n

Since the West Island task force was set up, the number of break-ins has fallen in the five towns covered by Station 1 – Kirkland, Beaconsfield, Baie d’Urf\u00e9, Senneville and Ste. Anne de Belle\u00advue, a fact Chablo relates with a smile. Now Constable George Manoli has a neat little gad\u00b7 get to deter would-be burglars from his house. It’s an automatic barking dog that looks like a combi\u00adnation lock and hangs on his inside doorknob. The fake pooch – which is heat- and motion-sensi\u00adtive – starts barking up a storm the second some\u00adone tries to open the dom:<\/p>\n

Manoli, a crime-prevention officerat Station 27 in Ahuntsic, has other ideas for keeping burglars away -like putting up a Beware of Dog sign even if you don’t have a dog, or leaving the radio on and tuned to an AM station to make thieves think you’re at home.<\/p>\n

With nearly one-third of Canadians feeling they are likely to fail victim to a residential break\u00adin and break-in rates on the rise, police are push\u00ading crime-prevention programs to help people avoid being burgled.<\/p>\n

People can \u00ab\u00a0harden the target\u00a0\u00bb – or make thieves choose someone else’s house, Manoli said.<\/p>\n

\u00ab\u00a0We’re talking about giving the impression that the house looks lived in,\u00a0\u00bb he said. \u00ab\u00a0I1’s to make your home tougher to enter.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n

Potential burglars ask themselves several ques\u00adtions before deciding to break into a house or an apartment, Manoli said. They include:<\/p>\n