As the Boston College community begins to depart Chestnut Hill for Thanksgiving break, BC Chief of Police Bill Evans is reminding off-campus students to make sure they lock up before they escape campus for the beginning of the holiday season.
Evans sent out a reminder to the community via email and across BCPD’s social media channels, urging students to be proactive in preventing potential crimes from occurring.
“Traditionally, especially off campus, a lot of the students leave their apartments,” Evans said. “I was in that district for nine years, and traditionally [break-ins] go up because there’s nobody around. That’s why we sent out [the email]: If you have valuable electronics, if you can take them home, and if not make sure you lock your doors, lock your windows, and pull your air conditioners out of windows.”
Evans said that the break-in rate can increase during the holiday season, due to the fact that it’s a time ripe for crimes of opportunity. This is a situation Evans and BCPD lieutenant Jeffrey Postell emphasized was behind some of the break-in issues that plagued the Allston-Brighton neighborhoods off-campus students call home this past September. Once residents concentrated on securing all ports of entry in their home, as well as surveying the area to make sure items like ladders weren’t lying around—giving potential criminals a much easier route to commit a crime—the spike in reported break-ins immediately ceased.
The email urged students not only to lock doors, windows, and remove AC units, but also to activate any tracking devices residents may have on electronics in their homes, as well as the usual emphasis on reporting suspicious activity to local law enforcement by calling 911.
“It becomes a little bit of a ghost town in the student areas over the holidays,” Evans said. “If you have a neighbor, let your neighbor know you’re going to be gone and they can keep an eye on your property too.”
Featured Image by Taylor Perison / Heights Staff
