Monday, February 15, 2010

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Police: Teen boys involved in housebreaking rings By Jasmin Bonimy ~ Guardian Staff Reporter ~ jasmin@nasguard.com: With police recently reporting that housebreakings in The Bahamas are on the rise, they revealed yesterday that officers are also noticing an increasing trend of teenage and adolescent boys breaking into homes across New Providence. According to Superintendent Stephen Dean, who now serves as director of the National Crime Prevention Office, children as young as 12 have become involved in elaborate housebreaking rings that typically operate in the daytime hours. "What we have noticed is that (people involved in) housebreakings have been forming into rings where there have been not just one individual breaking into homes," said Dean. "There are a group of persons breaking into homes. So over the past year we have cracked a number of housebreaking rings and the make up of these rings have tended to be juveniles." Dean said that in many of the cases, police investigations have revealed the teenagers were on suspension from school when they committed the crimes. "When we do a background check of these individuals we find out that most of them have been suspended from school," said Dean. "So they've been lurking around most of the day and that seems to be the operation. What they seem to be targeting are electronic games, laptop computers and flat screen televisions." Dean added that in other cases teens have also teamed up with adult offenders to break into homes. "An additional trend we've seen as well is adults using the minors to break into homes," he said. "They've been moving around in cars from communities to communities, so that is something that police have been aggressively pursuing and looking at for the past week." While Dean said police have cracked several of the juvenile rings, he admitted that in some cases the teens have been released on bail and are now back to their old tricks. "Every time we see a trend that seems to fit the modus operandi of these persons because some of them are out on bail. We tend to revisit them [and] execute warrants on their place and bring them into custody," he said. "...Sometimes we find that they're the persons because people don't change their modus operandi. We are creatures of habit so they continue along that same path." Last Wednesday, police reported that between January 25 and February 1 there was a sharp increase in the number of robberies and housebreakings after 66 thefts were reported. At the time Superintendent Leon Bethell, head of the Central Detective Unit, said those robberies were reported in New Providence, Grand Bahama, and Abaco. He added that on average only 20 robberies are reported each week in the northern district of The Bahamas. For this reason, Dean said it was important for residents to be extra cautious in protecting their homes by implementing security measures that include installing alarm systems, locking all entrances to a home, and establishing neighborhood crime watch groups. "Criminals prefer to break into homes that are easily accessible and avoid homes where prevention measures have been taken to secure the residence," he noted. Tuesday February 09, 2010