THIEVES TEND TO BE YOUNG AND ON DRUGS, POLICE DATA SAY

Local News - Thieves have stolen more than $12 million and caused nearly
$400,000 in damage to local homes and businesses in the last five years,
according a Kingston Police report released yesterday.

Kingston residents lost nearly $1.2 million from about 750 break-ins
reported to police last year alone, said the report, prepared by department
crime analyst Ray Lonsdale.

On average, thieves stole $2,872.40 each time they broke into a home, and
caused $85.35 in property damage.

Thieves who target businesses managed to steal an average of $6,380.62 and
cause $195.94 in property damage.

The highest amount reported stolen was more than $300,000 and the smallest
was $1.

Property crime fell 11.3 per cent between in the last three years, Deputy
Chief Dan Murphy told a meeting of the police services board yesterday,
although the number of reported break-ins had risen by 23 per cent - 27 per
cent last year alone.

But police have also been clearing more break-ins as well, the report said.

Clearance rates have been rising since 2000 and are up almost 70 per cent
since 1998.

The report paints the typical Kingston thief as someone someone in his
teens or early 20s - stealing home entertainment equipment like DVD players
and televisions, machinery, money and jewelry.

Two-thirds of those charged with burglary were under 25 and nearly a
quarter were young offenders.

More than half the robberies in the last five years took place during the
day when many people were at work.

Only 20 per cent of break-ins happened at night and of those only three per
cent happened when someone was in the home.

Most break-ins were in the downtown core - more than 80 per cent were in
the boundaries of the old city of Kingston, the report said.

Young thieves often stole to get money CDs and DVDs, clothes, cigarettes
and alcohol and accessories for their cars, although the older the offender
the more likely he was to steal to pay rent and buy food, the report said.

Many thieves steal for drug money. Drug seizures by Kingston Police have
gone up about 650 per cent during the last four or five years, Staff Sgt.
Chris Scott told a meeting of the Kingston police services board yesterday.

"We have a very active illegal drug usage in the city of Kingston," Closs said.