Letter: Police must be more responsive to property crimes

To the editor:

I frequently read posts in the local crime watch groups on Facebook. Primarily for the hilarious comments, but I also feel these groups are important to learn about what is actually happening in parts of our city.

Recently, somebody posted about how they have seen a woman repeatedly trespass and steal from their backyard garden. Including damaging their gate to gain entry. Apparently, the police told them that it was not a priority.

As a tax-paying citizen, I wouldn’t want to see my tax dollars going to pay cops overtime to stake out someone’s little backyard garden. But, at the same time, if I had somebody constantly trespassing, damaging my property, stealing my flowers and vegetables, and the police did nothing, I’d be furious. It is 100% the police's job to deal with this situation.

This is just one example of hundreds, or more likely one of thousands of property crimes that are not responded to by the police.

You can’t blame the police because they actually have “more important” things to deal with. And you can’t blame the property owners for being upset, because their tax dollars pay for the police to protect their property.

There are no easy answers here, but this catch-and-release style of crime fighting clearly is not working. I’m sure the local police would agree.

The major problem is that this is going to lead to vigilante justice, and tax-paying citizens frustrated with the current system are going to be the ones to pay the price.

If the person with these garden issues set up a booby trap, or put out bear traps in their yard for the thief to step in, I guarantee they would be charged with some type of assault. But what other options are they left with?

These repeat offenders need to be dealt with before hard-working, tax-paying citizens have no option but to take things into their own hands. In places with the “castle laws”, like Florida, this homeowner would be allowed to shoot this thief. Nobody wants to see those laws here. These laws lead to children being shot for jumping a fence to get their ball back. But if the government continues to let criminals run wild, the people will have no choice but to take things into their own hands.

 Tim Holtby

North Bay