The Daily Toreador - Student Newspaper of Texas Tech

Issue date: 10/26/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Trent Barnes Photo Illustration

Lubbock's burglary rate was twice the national average in 2006, a nearly 15 percent increase from 2005, and the Texas Tech Police Department is warning that on-campus vehicle burglaries also are on the rise.

Col. Gordon Hoffman, deputy chief of the Tech Police Department, said he believes the 26 vehicle burglaries, reported on the Tech campus between Aug. 18 and Oct. 25, is an increased figure but did not have records accessible before this time period.

"Usually we have these in spells," he said. "We have a rash of them, and then we have a dead spell for a while. Somebody will get arrested, and they'll be out of commission for a while and then it will reappear."

Unlike vehicle burglaries in the past where windows are broken out, Hoffman said many of the recent vehicle burglaries on campus have involved the vehicles' locking mechanisms being "punched out."

"Usually they just smash and grab, but this may be more professional perhaps, but I don't know," Hoffman said. "It could possibly be more than one person, but that's hard to say. We just have to catch them to find out."

Though vehicle burglaries have increased on the Tech campus, Sgt. Clay Winters with the Lubbock Police Department said they are not a trend that contributed to the city's increase in burglaries in 2006.

"I know they've had more than we have, and I'm kind of thinking it's probably somebody that's living there on campus doing it cause I haven't had a whole lot of it," he said.

While he could not give a definitive answer for the city's increase in burglaries, Winters said the Lubbock Police Department has not grown in proportion with the city's population.

Lubbock's 2006 average of 1423.4 burglaries per 100,000 inhabitants is nearly double the national average of 729.4, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Report.

However, the rate of vehicle theft in Lubbock, 321.3 per 100,00 inhabitants, is approximately 19 percent lower than the national average of 398.4, according to the report.

Winters said he also was unaware as to why the rate of vehicle theft was lower in Lubbock, but he recommended people make greater efforts to prevent their vehicles from being stolen because certain part of town are more susceptible.

"The problem areas are generally down in the Depot Entertainment District area when the bars are open, and ,of course, any area where apartment complexes are prevalent are going to get hit heavily," he said.

Continued...

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