Each holiday season, police departments and media remind people they would make fine targets for criminals.
Retailers prepare for billions in shoplifting losses.
The National Crime Prevention Council issues a pamphlet warning that crooks love the holidays because the season makes “an opportune time for crime.”
Do we really have more to fear during the holidays? And, if so, what can we do to protect ourselves?
The Times talked to police, security experts and academics for answers.
Does crime really leap?
Local police didn’t agree on a spike in general holiday season crime, but officials said a few specific crimes jump each year.
“One of your biggest things is thefts from vehicles,” said Assistant Chief Hollis Dorrough of the South Holland Police Department.
And more pockets are picked and purses snatched during the holidays, police agreed. Women make popular targets, Lansing Police Chief Daniel McDevitt said.
“Not that there aren’t some (thieves) that can do it, but it’s a … lot harder to get a wallet out of a man’s pants,” he said.
You might think burglaries would increase during the holidays, when homes are filled with new merchandise. But only one police official reported an increase in burglaries during the holidays. Burglaries shoot up in Gary during the holidays, said Lt. Roger Smith, a 23-year veteran of the department.
Myth’ of holiday crime
Neither residents nor retailers face dramatic jumps in old-fashioned, hands-on crime, said Chris McGoey, a security consultant for retailers nationwide. Stores are busier and malls are more stressful, but stores and parking lots are full of potential witnesses, he said.
Neither McGoey nor Purdue University Calumet criminologist Richard Van Orman could pinpoint any national crime statistics on the topic, but Van Orman agreed that crime as a whole doesn’t increase during the holidays.
Other than the depressing uptick in suicides — killing oneself is illegal — crime actually may decrease during the holidays, Van Orman said.
The National Retail Federation estimated stores lost $37.4 billion to crime in 2005. The federation said retailers expect to lose $3.5 billion on fraudulent returns alone this holiday season.
The biggest problems don’t come from shoplifters, McGoey said, but from employees and criminals committing fraud.
I caught a few minutes of the TV news the other day and from the over-reporting of holiday crime viewers may get a mistaken picture. While property crime probably increases during the holiday season, the news appears to over-emphasize it. The article above seems to give a more accurate picture. Regardless, during the holiday season especially, people and stores want to protect themselves. Keep yourself safe, carry as little money as possible, and don’t leave merchandise or cash unattended.
