OCEAN CITY — With many resort residents planning holiday travel or vacations to warmer climates with winter near, the Ocean City Police Department has a residential security check program available for the countless vacant properties in the resort, and many are taking advantage of it this year.
With the arrival of the holiday season, numerous Ocean City residents will travel to see families over the next few weeks and quite a few more will head off to warm, sunny vacation spots. For years, the OCPD has offered an invaluable program in which local residents can register their properties for random security checks by officers when they are not at home for extended periods of time and in the past the reception has been lukewarm for a variety of reasons. This year thus far, however, the OCPD is seeking a spike in the number of residents taking advantage of the program.
“We are actually having a lot of people taking advantage of it this year,” said OCPD spokesperson Lindsay Richard. “Not sure where the sudden surge came from, but we’ve been getting probably five to 10 calls a day for the last couple of weeks.”
Through the program, homeowners and business owners can register their properties with the OCPD’s residential security check program and officers will randomly go around to them at different times of the day to ensure they are secure. During registration, homeowners provide information about how long they are going to be away, what interior and exterior lights are on timers, who might be visiting the property during the prescribed time period, what vehicles might be in the driveway and any other pertinent information about the status of the property.
OCPD officers on routine patrol will then drive by the property at random times during the day to ensure everything appears to be as it is supposed to be. The officers will also get out and check doors, sliding doors, windows, garages and other access points to ensure the property is safely secured and has not been compromised in any way while the owners are out of town.
Each year, the OCPD responds to numerous incidents of burglaries at vacant properties. While the resort is inherently safe, especially during the quiet winter months, unfortunately there is a criminal element taking advantage of the vast number of empty properties.
“Unfortunately, it’s no secret that Ocean City sees a number of burglaries in the winter time,” said Richard this week. “Criminals know that many homes in our resort town are unoccupied for the winter and they will take advantage of that.”
Many resort property owners close up their second homes in Ocean City and winterize them. Unfortunately, some return in the spring and find their property has been burglarized. The OCPD’s residential check program is an effective way to prevent that from happening in many cases.
“Oftentimes, the homeowner doesn’t report the burglary until spring when they return to open the home back up and by then, it’s difficult to investigate and find a suspect,” said Richard.
While the residential check program is an effective crime prevention tool for seasonal use properties in the resort, it also has applications for those local residents who are going to be away for a long weekend, a week, a month or even much of the winter.
“The program is also great for year-round residents that travel,” she said. “Whether you sign up for a weekend or an entire winter, our officers will make sure you home stays safe and secure while you’re away. We will ask the homeowner a series of questions and if an officer drives by and notices something that doesn’t match up with what the homeowner says, our officers will give them a call to confirm that everything is how it should be.”
The OCPD’s residential security check module is used to track residential and commercial addresses that require special monitoring. As officers patrol Ocean City, their observations and comments for the locations are captured in the department’s CAD system. When a special watch expires, a detailed report can be generated that outlines the frequency of the officer checks and any observations or unique circumstances experienced by officers for a specific address. More importantly, the security check system provides officers with enough information to quickly contact residents about their property in an emergency.
The proliferation of social media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter, for example, allow would-be criminals the opportunity to find out who is away and how long they will be gone. To that end, Richard advised local residents to be careful about how much information they make public. Beyond that, a handful of common sense tips can prevent resort property owners from becoming victims of crime while they are away from home.
“Other than signing up for the Residential Security Check program, we suggest that you have lights placed throughout your home on a timer while you’re away and also ask a neighbor to use your driveway while you’re away. That way, it gives the illusion that someone is in the home.”