Officials say steps can be taken to prevent crime

By Brooks Taylor, Mt. Pleasant News

Lock your doors, establish a rapport with your neighbors and be vigilant.

Those were the three top tips from Henry County Sheriff Richard McNamee and Mt. Pleasant Police Chief Ron Archer during a ?Crime in Henry County ? How Your Business Can Avoid Becoming a Victim? seminar Thursday at Access Energy. The event was sponsored by the Mt. Pleasant Area Chamber of Commerce Alliance.

Darin Stater, Henry County attorney, also briefed the 25-member audience on counterfeiting in the area.

While substance abuse crimes continue to top the charts in Mt. Pleasant, McNamee and Archer said burglary, theft and vandalism has shown alarming increases in 2016 and thus far this year.

Sheriff?s office statistics do show a significant increase in the area of burglary and breaking-and-entering. Last year, there were 30 arrests for the crime, compared with seven the year before. The only other year, in the past eight, that has rivaled 2016 in terms of burglary and breaking-and-entering arrests was 2009 when there were 27 arrests. There were three vehicle theft arrests in 2016 and one in 2015. Vandalism arrests totaled 18 last year, opposed to 14 the year before.

?Four years ago, I promised the citizens that when elected, we would attack substance abuse and civil problems,? McNamee said. ?Drug cases, during my first four years in office, more than doubled over the previous four years.?

From 2009-2012, there were 203 drug offenses in the county, according to the sheriff?s office statistics. In the four-year period from 2013-2016, there were 390 drug arrests.

Archer said the city and county no longer participate in the Southeast Iowa Drug Task Force. The move has allowed them to spend more money locally. ?We have two investigators now and they are very aggressive,? he began. ?We decided to do away with the drug force and do it ourselves. It has saved us money to spend more money at home. Drug trade is never ending here.?

McNamee said the most significant reason for leaving the drug task force was that it was becoming more and more tilted toward larger communities, such as Ottumwa and Burlington. ?We would rather have our guys investigating drug crimes here than in Ottumwa. It has allowed us to spend money for use on equipment here. We have all kinds of devices to watch suspected drug users and abusers.

?We found that when we were with the drug task force, there were multiple services and departments investigating the same people,? McNamee noted. ?They were all headed in the same direction, coming from different angles.?

Archer and McNamee said the recent spike in home, business and vehicle burglaries is a concern.

Archer urged businesses to install video cameras and alarms in their businesses. ?Video is a big help to us,? he emphasized. ?A lot of burglaries go hand-in-hand with drugs because offenders need money to buy drugs. I would also advise residents and businesses not to cover windows.

?Alarm systems are good,? Archer continued. ?We prefer silent alarms because we want to catch the person when they are there.?

McNamee said business employees and residents should be aware of ?anything out of the ordinary. You know who belongs on your block. If people come in four or five nights in a row and look for security cameras, how the door is locked and who the clerk is a good sign (that the person is ?casing? the business). They generally won?t make eye contact and make a small purchase. We can set up a guy to be the clerk if there is suspicious activity for a few days.?

In residential situations, Archer said there is no better security than your neighbors, relating that if you are going to be gone for a few days, inform your neighbors of your planned absence.

A ?snowbird? list is kept in the sheriff?s office, McNamee remarked. ?We love to receive a call before you leave (on a trip). We have about 20 people?s homes we check on during the winter.?

It is not an inconvenience to law enforcement to notify them that you will be on a trip, Archer stressed. ?It doesn?t bother us at all. You are paying us to do it (protect your residence).?

Asked for a description of those committing recent burglaries, McNamee said the majority of the burglars are from 15 to 29 years of age and either local or from the immediate area.

?If I go to your car looking to steal something and try the handle and see it is locked, I will move to the next car,? Archer said.

McNamee agreed, remarking that most burglaries are crimes of opportunity.

The sheriff said that recently there were seven burglaries in the rural area during one night, all committed by the same person. The burglaries included six vehicles and one house. ?Every one of those (vehicles and house) was unlocked. Anything you can do to deter them is to your advantage. Lock your doors.?

He said that most burglaries occur after midnight although ?burglars and thieves are getting more brave and hiding in plain sight.?

Archer added that his department has investigated some burglaries that have occurred during daylight. ?We have had burglaries going in houses when people are home. Those are the type of burglaries that scare me the most because a lot of people have guns in their home.?

County Attorney Stater said counterfeit $100 bills (which are ?doctored? $1 bills) have passed through the county in recent months. The first wave was a Chicago group and later bills from Florida started surfacing.

Part of the reason for the increase, according to Stater, is that counterfeit activity also rises following a presidential election. ?The Secret Service agents investigate this and after an election more Secret Service agents are in Washington, D.C. Iowa has four Secret Service agents but only one is in the state now.?

Recent practice by counterfeiters is to use a fake $100 bill to make a small purchase and recoup the change in real money.

?When someone comes in your business and makes a $5 purchase with a $100 bill, be suspicious,? Archer urged. ?People aren?t buying high-ticket items (with the counterfeit bills), they want the change because that is real money.?

Stater told retailers to be aware that counterfeit bills are in the area and the fake bills ?look pretty convincing.?

In closing, McNamee told attendees to be aware. ?Look for the obvious. The obvious stuff gets us our cases and helps us put together our cases quicker.?