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SPD Major Crimes Detective Talks About Combating Stolen Packages and Theft

December 14, 2016 1:52pm

Yesterday Detective Scotty Bach, a member of SPD’s Major Crimes Taskforce, posted an AMA (Ask Me Anything) on Reddit. MCTF’s main focus is property crime—both serial thieves and organized crime rings. Scotty is known for following a tweeted tip and a Craigslist ad to two different caches of stolen bikes. His one hour AMA yesterday produced 174 comments, many of them focusing on bike thefts and packages stolen from front porches.

Here’s a few of the highlights:

Porkies4Me: Hi Scotty – thanks a ton for all you do! My question: What’s the one thing you wish all residents would do to help reduce property crime in our community?

Seattle_PD: Seattle Police Dept.[S]: JUST ONE THING?!? Take a look around your property and make sure nothing is sitting outside. I don’t think we need to live like everyone is out to steal everything, but if a suspect is successful in one neighborhood because someone leaves their yard tools unsecured under their porch… that suspect or his/her friend will come back to your neighborhood. Make sure you secure your property and fence line.

t4lisker: How valuable are recordings or images from home security cameras in investigating and prosecuting mail theft and property crimes?

Seattle_PD Seattle Police Dept: Very important. Just like on TV, juries want to see photo evidence, including surveillance video. If you have the resources to put up a cheap surveillance system, I would encourage this. The suspect photos you capture get sent around throughout the department and we have had some success… One caution I would say is put up your camera system so you can see faces in the shot. So many systems get mounted on the highest part of the business/residence and only capture the top of the suspect.

AmListening: Do cameras discourage thieves ?

Seattle_PD: Seattle Police Dept.Yes they can. The goal is to make them not want to steal your stuff. I have a large commercial style camera mounted so they see it.

For the complete thread go to Reddit.

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