Highland Heights Police Leaving Suggestions on How to Be Safe

residents who leave their garage doors open could be finding a note from the police department.

Since Aug. 1, police have been leaving the notes as part of a Community Policing Initiative. Police Chief James Cook discussed the program during a recent safety update to the City Council.

"If your door was open or you didn't have any lights on, an officer will leave a friendly suggestion of what they could do there (to be safer)," Cook said.

He said garage doors left open and unlocked car doors are a problem and reminded that during a recent string of thefts every car that was broken into had been left unlocked.

"If a car's locked, they just pass it by," he said.

Cook also gave an overview of the police department, which had 15 officers in 1979 and now has 22 full-time officers, three resources officers, four full-time dispatchers and three records clerks.

He said that's about average nationally – 50 percent of departments have 10 officers or fewer and 90 percent have 50 officers or fewer. "We're not considered a small department," Cook said.

As for equipment, national statistics show 75 percent of officers are authorized to use Tasers, 61 percent have video equipment in their patrol cars and 67 percent are required to wear body armor. All of those numbers are at 100 percent in Highland Heights.

Cook also addressed the city's Code Red notification system, sometimes referred to as reverse 911. He said the city can put out 60,000 calls and reach every resident within 15 to 20 minutes.

"We've been using that the last couple of years and it's worked out very well," he said.

Highland Heights also is one of few cities to offer an alarm-based service. For $120 setup costs and $15 a month, alarm signals are sent directly into an alarm board at the city – eliminating the need for a middleman service to notify police.

Cook, who gave a similar talk to the Aberdeen Homeowners Association a few months ago, also talked about burglaries, which were a concern in that area.

He said Highland Heights has not had an aggravated burglary – an incident in which the suspect is armed – in about five years. Cook said home burglaries have been level and Highland Heights had 10 last year. That compared to 26 in Richmond Heights, 21 in Lyndhurst, 37 in Mayfield Heights, 12 in Mayfield Village, 32 in Willoughby Hills and 28 in Beachwood.

Highland Heights has had eight burglaries in 2011. From 2005 to 2009, the number of burglaries were seven, four, three, 11 and four.

Of the 22 burglaries in Highland Heights since 2009, five were in the Aberdeen area. Cook noted that most burglaries occurred during daylight hours.

He said one of the most important things residents can do to prevent burglaries or other crimes is to report any suspicious activities immediately. Many incidents are crimes of opportunity, so keep doors and windows locked, have outside lights on, have deadbolt locks on steel door frames and don't allow strangers into your home, he said.