December 8, 2014, Canton, MI – In an effort to promote holiday safety this season, the Canton Police Department is utilizing a multi-pronged approach to include a combination of high-visibility patrols and encouraged citizen awareness to curb the incidents of theft and retail fraud in the community.
To start, this holiday season the Canton Police Department is participating in a multi-agency initiative called Operation Blue Light. This initiative, coordinated through the Dearborn Police Department, calls for a concentration of high-visibility patrols in retail areas and major shopping thoroughfares as a method of curbing increased crime during the heavy shopping season.
Gearing up for Operation Blue Light, Canton has already been deploying officers to patrol parking lots of retail establishments.
“Last weekend, while patrolling the Wal-Mart parking lot on Michigan Avenue, one of our officers was approached by an employee reporting a theft that had just occurred. The officer recognized the description given as a vehicle he had just passed in the lot and was able to quickly locate it and subsequently arrest two individuals,” said Special Services Lt. Craig Wilsher.
Canton police officers will also have an increased patrol presence in neighborhoods throughout the community, watching for suspicious activity with regard to the recent increase of delivered packages being stolen from front porches.
“Last year we took numerous reports of thefts of packages left by delivery drivers on front porches. This year we are proactively addressing the problem by increasing marked patrols in residential areas,” said Wilsher.
“In addition, we would like to encourage our residents to keep an eye out for suspicious activity in their neighborhoods and report it to our dispatch center immediately at 734/394-5400. Neighbors looking out for neighbors provide an additional eye on crime in the community, and can be a valuable asset to the officers who can’t be in every neighborhood, every minute of the day,” Wilsher adds.
Residents are also reminded to keep their own belongings and packages out of plain sight in parked vehicles, whether locked or unlocked. By concealing or removing these items, the opportunity for theft is removed for would-be thieves.
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