Crime Prevention Signs Working in Mesquite, Texas

The Mesquite Police Department reports the simple message from the Lock, Take and Hide crime prevention signs have had a tremendous impact on reducing auto thefts and burglaries in their city.

The police department recently contacted the Insurance Council of Texas requesting an additional 100 Lock, Take and Hide signs to help reduce auto crimes at various Mesquite locations.

“Without a doubt placing these Lock, Take and Hide signs in high crime areas has resulted in a substantial reduction of auto thefts and burglaries,” said Officer Jeff Goodfred of the Mesquite Police Department. “Our crime statistics clearly show that drivers are getting the message and criminals are steering clear of where these signs have been placed.”

Goodfred said officers contacted 16 businesses in Mesquite that had the highest incidence of vehicle thefts and burglaries. Each business was provided with Lock, Take and Hide signs.

After 116 days, the crime stats for each area were compared to the previous year. In locations where high-crime businesses installed the Lock, Take and Hide signs, there was a reduction in these types of offenses.

The businesses that turned down the offer of installing the signs experienced a significant increase in crime.

In 2005, the Mesquite Police Department became a part of the Insurance Council of Texas’ Lock, Take and Hide program when 100 of the shiny metallic crime prevention signs were soon posted in the parking lots of malls and apartment complexes throughout the city.

“We had been told by crime prevention officers that wherever the signs are placed, auto thefts and burglaries go down. These statistics confirm what we have been told,” said Mark Hanna, a spokesman for the Insurance Council of Texas (ICT). “This crime prevention reminder has prevented hundreds of auto thefts and burglaries across the state and that equates to fewer claims and millions of dollars in savings that wind their way back to consumers.”

ICT’s Lock, Take and Hide program began with a request from the Austin Police Department for the crime prevention signs. ICT has since furnished approximately two dozen city and Automobile Burglary and Theft Prevention Authorities with more than 2,000 of these signs in every corner of the state.

Source: Insurance Council of Texas