Metropolitan Police Department Lt. Mark Carter informed residents at Wednesday’s Partnerships for Problem Solving meeting of the recent arrest of the serial burglar who was involved in anywhere from 20 to 40 burglaries, and stressed that the burglar only broke into houses with unlocked doors.
“I can’t stress enough how important it is for residents to lock their doors, especially since 95 percent of burglaries occur with open doors,” Carter said.
The burglar, apprehended for burglaries both on and off campus, was able to make a career out of his thefts by claiming to be a homeless person if anybody found him.
“No one put in a call to the police until a couple of weeks ago about this suspicious activity,” Carter said. “But thankfully, one of our officers was able to stop him.”
Carter also informed residents of a recent identity theft at the university, explaining how someone had taken out an unauthorized ATM card on a university student’s account.
“It’s easy to get a form of identification from a written check or an old credit card approval, and therefore, students and residents should be sure to shred their unused checks,” Carter said. “We need to be aware that identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in the world.”
In response to the growing concern of Georgetown residents on recent noise concerns at the February partnerships meeting, Carter reported that residents have been “using a lot more consideration with their neighbors recently,” as a result of increased MPD targeting of problem houses.
“Let’s hope that continues when we get back into the full swing of summer,” Carter said, alluding to the fact that a lot more people are on the street during the spring and summer seasons.
“People lose their minds in the warm weather,” he said. As a result, Carter noted that MPD will have increased patrol of the streets during the next couple of weekends that are projected to offer increased warm weather.
MPD will also block off certain streets after a certain time at night in the coming weeks, so as to decrease the number of motorcycle riders that come through the Georgetown neighborhood late at night.
In addition, Carter reported that MPD hopes to station permanent police officers at the Washington Harbor area during the summer months.
“Buses, cars and motorcycles down in that area have been a major problem in the past,” Carter said, “so we hope to have someone down there to be on the job at all times.”
Sgt. William Cummings explained how noise violations on boats have been a problem in the past, and that MPD will be on alert with boat patrol.
“The problem with consuming alcoholic beverages on a boat is that a boat is not considered public space,” he said.
MPD is also in the continued process of changing Police Service Area boundaries, or beats, in the Second District, according to Carter. The Second District is proposed to contain seven PSAs instead of the current nine. PSA 206, which contains West Georgetown, is proposed to be extended west to include the university.
“We’re trying right now to deal with a minimum staff, with personnel moving back and forth,” Carter said.
