Springfield police handle car break-ins differently than Eugene
By Tom Adams and KVAL Web StaffSPRINGFIELD, Ore. - Standing on a dead end street in Springfield, Ore., Loretta Keefe sizes up the potential for breaking into a car and making a clean getaway.
Keefe isn't looking to "clout" a car, copspeak for the smash and grab robberies that plague Lane County. On Monday alone, police in nearby Eugene, Ore., took eight reports of car break-ins -- below average in a town where 3,000 car break-ins were reported last year. Police feel unable to respond to every report, which frustrates victims of the crimes. Lesser populated Springfield faces it's own rash of break-ins: 1,031 so far in 2008, up from 783 in all of 2007. That's where Keefe and other paid Community Service Officers come in. CSOs are trained for evidence collection. "Maybe they (the thieves) have tried the handle of the door and we'll look for fresh prints there and we'll dust for prints," says Keefe. That's where Keefe comes in. Unlike in Eugene, where police are often unable to respond to reports of car break-ins, Springfield responds to every report. Keefe is a Community Service Officer, paid for through a public safety levy. Thieves are looking at the three Ls -- landscaping, lighting and locks. "Look at this," Keefe says of an unoccupied pick-up. "It's open. In fact, I'm going to lock it for him." |
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"This is a dead end," she says. "There's some landscaping here that provides kind of a feeling of a wall of concealment."
KVAL, 4575 Blanton Road,
