The Alliance Police Department is still investigating recent burglaries and car thefts in the city. As they work to solve the issue, they are asking Alliance residents to take steps to protect themselves.
Alliance Police Department Chief Philip Lukens explained that, with regard to the recent car thefts, they have gone after some individuals.
“I think that that has kind of subsided, but I will say, though, in a couple of community meetings I’ve been in, it’s very common to hear people still leaving their keys in their car and leaving their car unlocked,” said Lukens. “I think some of this crime is a crime of opportunity. If we could get people to lock their doors and keep their keys out of their cars, it would really help us.”
Lukens cited an internet survey that rated Alliance one of the worst towns in America that noted crime as being a large factor in that rating.
“This is a very easy thing for us to change our reputation if we just locked our cars,” Lukens said. “Those numbers wouldn’t be there, and it wouldn’t give people something to look at the city on. That’s probably one of the biggest things I would encourage the community is to lock your doors and take your keys out of your car. It would make it so much easier for the community at large.”
Lukens described burglaries as being touch and go lately, noting they have several suspects in mind.
“We have some suspects,” said Lukens. “We’ve got several warrants that we have executed to gather additional data. Our goal isn’t to solve one; it’s to solve all of them. That’s taken a little more time to be more methodical, but we’re not running at this like the OK Corral, if you will. We’re going to be very strategic and make sure that we have everything put together. We don’t want to solve a case for a few people, we want to solve a lot of them. So, there are a lot of things that go into that to include some forensic data. That takes time.”
Lukens noted one of the best thing people could do is to change the locks on their storage lockers and to use security cameras.
“If we could get people to change the type of lock they have on their storage locker, it wouldn’t get broken in to,” Lukens said. “That would circumvent a lot of it. Yes, people could still use a cutting torch, or a sawzall, but now we’re going to start to have noise, which people recognize when a crime is being committed, and people will alert the police to get there quickly.”
Lukens said that it is not possible to have officers everywhere in the city, which is why he is relying upon citizens to keep them aware of incidents as they occur.
“We need our community’s help in partnering with us, to say, ‘We’ll do our part,’ to make it so that the officers can help circumvent these issues,” said Lukens. “We just can’t be everywhere at once. We will bring a resolve to this. It is high on our priority list. Both detectives are assigned working on these cases, there is a lot of follow up on it. It is going to still take some time to get it all together, but rest assured, our eyes are on a suspect, or a couple, if you will, and we’re putting together a forensics case, that way it’s not a bunch of circumstantial evidence, but concrete evidence.”
Lukens said the department is investing a lot in technology to modernize the department’s investigation efforts.
“It’s unacceptable for people to be victims of crimes and never get closure,” Lukens said. “That’s our responsibility. We want to be able to do everything we can to give someone closure when they’ve been victimized of a crime.”
Lukens emphasized people need to contact the police any time they believe something suspicious is happening.
“I would rather people call 10 times, and have officers checking things 10 times to be on the safe side, than to have anybody’s garage broken into, anybody’s storage locker, anybody’s car taken,” said Lukens. “We’d rather check things out all day long than go to the calls where someone’s been victimized. We’re really asking our community to please help us. If you see something, say something. Call us, even if you’re not sure. Let us not spend so much time running after a crime that has happened, but spend the time making sure future crimes don’t happen.”