Delta Police Department roll out ‘Leave it Empty’ campaign to change community behaviour

Delta Police Department's 'Leave it Empty' campaign mirror hangars.

Thefts from vehicles in the Delta/Ladner region have seen a significant rise compared to last year.

As of April 2, 2017, reports of thefts from vehicles are at 248 year to date(YTD) compared to 199(YTD) in 2016, a 24% increase in crimes. The Delta Police Department (DPD) are reporting an overall 39% increase in this type of crime compared to last year.

The DPD launched a campaign called “Leave it Empty” on April 14, 2017 to spread awareness of the growing issue and engage the community in a change of behaviour to reduce the number of thefts from vehicles, one of Delta’s most prominent crimes.

“A significant amount of valuables are being left behind in the vehicle in plain view. Which essentially is an invitation to the opportunistic criminal looking for an easy win as far as gaining either loose change or property that is of value,” says Sharlene Brooks, Public Affairs Coordinator for the Delta Police Department.

Items stolen range from loose change to purses, wallets, passports and garage door openers or other small electronics.

“It's not just about the theft from vehicles, it's about preventing theft of identity,” says Brooks. “Once they have your passport, your credit cards or your drivers license, that then becomes a much easier target for stealing your identity and then we see fraud.”

“I do know it’s a huge problem, but habits can be hard to break,” says Bonni Wilson, 30, a resident from the 11000 block of 95A avenue in North Delta. “Even knowing it’s probably the number one crime in our area, we have two small DVD players for the kids and our GPS that we’ll probably still leave in the car.”

Traditional media and press releases notifying the community to not leave valuables in their car had minimal effect on the overall reduction of the crime.

“We also work in partnership with our community police stations. [Officers] go out and will do a campaign and leave notices on the windshield of vehicles saying: ‘we saw that you had valuables in the vehicle’ so they will reinforce that lock it or loose it type of initiative,” says Brooks.

Victims of theft or auto break-ins are encouraged to not wipe down their car or drive their vehicle until police have responded and investigated the scene.

The DPD sends the “Forensic [Investigation] Services out to those calls to see if there is any forensic evidence that has been left behind. In other words, finger prints or any other things of evidentiary value,” says Brooks.

“We sweat the small stuff because our philosophy is 'no call too small' we don't want these smaller things taking root and becoming bigger issues in our community.”

Aside from spreading awareness and knowledge, the campaign aims to shift the behaviour of residents into remembering to remove valuables from their vehicle before leaving it unattended or parked.

“In leaving your vehicle empty, you remove the invitation of theft,” says Brooks.

To get the community more actively involved the DPD launched their social media campaign and handed out mirror hangers that read: “Nothing to steal but this sign. Please don’t steal the sign.”

The reverse side of the hangar contains detailed instructions and tips for individuals to follow to reduce the chances of any would be thieves from entering the vehicle and stealing property.

In just one month the campaign hasn’t seen a huge change in theft from auto offences, but according to Brooks “we’re getting reports of vehicles being rummaged through but no theft.”

“I used to leave my keys in the car whenever I was at the gym, or going somewhere I didn’t want to carry my keys around, because I have a keypad lock on my car,” says Wilson, “But since the campaign has come out, I’ve stopped doing that.”

A ‘take the pledge’ button is available on the DPD’s website for community members to pledge their commitment to leaving their vehicle empty. So far, just under 120 community members have taken the pledge.

“We’re hopeful that by raising awareness we’re going to see participation in changing of what we do. . . if we just change this than we can minimize or mitigate this from continuing,” says Brooks.