The Eugene Police Department took preventative measures to decrease property crime in highly student-populated neighborhoods during winter break, and statistics show their efforts may have improved matters.
Between Dec. 24 and Jan. 4, 17 burglaries were reported in the West University neighborhood, according to EPD spokesperson Rachel Anderson. Last year, 39 burglaries were reported in the same area.
“We looked at last year’s information and found significant spikes in burglaries in (University neighborhoods) during the holiday break,” EPD Lt. Scott Fellman said. EPD looked to decrease these spikes through outreach — before students went home for the break, EPD assigned six crime prevention staff to the West University neighborhood and the Kinsrow neighborhood to speak with tenants and hand out fliers offering preventative measures, Fellman said.
“When we do that, we always find a surprising number of people leave valuables in plain view,” Fellman said. “Laptops, iPods, purses, wallets — just sitting in their cars.”
Cars are an easy target for thefts, Fellman said, making car theft a common crime. The biggest piece of advice the staff offered student tenants was to not leave anything in their cars, but if they must, to hide it.
Recent University graduate Alex Bryan did not receive a flier, but he said he knew to take cautionary measures because he became a victim of theft last year.
“We have an alley behind our house, and the gate is open so I screwed it shut to the board,” Bryan said. “And I deadbolted all of the doors, covered the windows with blankets, covered the TV, closed the blinds. We put our bikes in our rooms instead of
keeping them locked up outside.”
Bryan’s efforts paid off — he returned to campus to find all of his belongings untouched.
Although contacting the tenants was very time consuming, the crime prevention campaign was a success, Anderson said.
“My house got broken into last winter break,” University senior Meredith Strumor said. But this winter, she said she and her roommate took preventative measures before leaving.
“My roommate put a fake rat on our stairs to scare people,” she said. The two also kept lights on while they were gone and locked all of their doors.
At Chase Village, an apartment complex where 85 to 90 percent of residents are University students, the campaign proved to work, Assistant Manager Ariel Duplant said. 
“The police presence helped. It definitely seemed to drop the number of car break-ins,” Duplant said. “The officers are finally giving us some attention.”
Duplant said he does not have complete statistics for winter break property crime incidents, and he currently knows of only two that have been reported.
To further prevent property crime, Fellman urged victims to report any incident to the police.
“Even if there is nothing we can do, let us know because it helps us focus our limited resources,” Fellman said. “If folks don’t report those crimes to us, we don’t know that we need to put a resource in that area.”
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