Police Stupidity?

[cyrusuncc]

I saw a news report about the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police attempting to crack down on holiday related crime. Apparently, there are a lot of car break-ins at malls and shopping centers, and the majority of those are from people leaving valuables in plain sight. So the chief of police, in all his "wisdom," devised a plan! Police officers will now put a bright red tag on vehicles that have valuables in plain sight to "inform" the owner that they should hide their valuables.

Its so nice that the police are tagging victims for the criminals!

[uptownliving]

Well if a criminal sees something good inside a car they are going to break into it anyways whether there is a sticker on it or not.

I see what you are saying that this is basically the police putting a red flag on the car saying "LOOK AT ME" but in most cases the police will get to the car before the criminal does then hopefully people will start heeding the police's advice and not leave valuables out in the open.

They will be tracking the breakins closely and if this doesn't cause a decrease then they will stop doing it.

[suburban george3]

I don't think this is stupid at all.... how many people peek in the windows of your car when you're at a shopping center?? Maybe none, maybe several... See a car that's cool or interesting and you may look in the window to comment on the dashboard or the leather seats and my, my; there's a cell phone or PDA or IPOD. Folks, put these things up, some of these portable gizmos can cost up to $1k (trust me, I have one of those buggers and I put it up in the glovebox at minimum and lock it up at every stop!) The police should include a small card saying that "We could have been a criminal and took your toys for ourselves but we still want you to have a Happy Holiday Season!"

I'm curious though, what will they do if they see a crack pipe or "tobacco aid" on the seat????

[cyrusuncc]

i understand why the police would want to inform people that they left their stuff in plain sight, but i saw the report and its a bright red tag (4x6 at least) that can be seen quite a distance away. I'm not saying that the police department didn't have good intentions, but the execution was not fully thought through.

When i saw the report it was pretty bad. You could just peer down a row of cars and see which one left their expensive toys in plain view. Its quicker and less suspicious to see a guy peering down a row of cars vs a guy looking inside each car.

[monsoon]

Seems to me the criminals won't be choosing to rob people in parking lots where the police are known to be cruising around and putting tags on cars. They will choose some place where this isn't happening.