Police in one Maryland town offer house checks during holiday travel
TAKOMA PARK, Md. - Around 115 million Americans are expected to travel over the Christmas holiday, according to AAA.
Some stays are short, others, a bit longer. A few communities in the DMV have services where police offer a little extra assistance for people leaving.
In Takoma Park, Maryland, they’ve done house checks here in Takoma Park, Maryland for residents nearly 30 years. Residents have to apply and opt-in.
When they do, they can put notes on the application which helps police know if anything is out of place. Police will do an inspection only of the exterior and only during the day. If something’s off, they’ll call the contact number as part of a resident’s application.
"The program isn’t for everybody. It’s not like a full-time security type thing. We are checking your house for damages, and if we find damage on your house while you’re away, we’ll call you on the number that you gave us and we’ll report that to you and you can tell us that’s old damage, or tell us something new and that doesn’t belong, and we can investigate from there," said Sgt. Gregory Wolff with the Takoma Park, Maryland Police Department.
Wolff says residents' privacy is kept, and this program is not meant to be a replacement for home security.
"[It] seems like positive as far as people generally feel safer about their cars not getting broken into when there’s a police presence walking around the neighborhood," said Andrew Falk.
Joelle Chall says even communicating this message is effective in her mind.
"I think it’s good that they’re telling us they’re going to do it. Because if you think about Home Alone, the two guys dressed up as police officers and asked if people were going out of town. So I think that having the community aware that’s going to happen is important to make sure. Police presence is nice. It scares people off. We do see some people walking up and down our streets, sometimes checking if cars are unlocked, convenience break-ins, so it’s good to let the neighbors know it’s happening," Chall said.
Sgt. Wolff tells Fox 5 they average 5 to 7 homes per month when they offer this year-round, but that number can double, or even triple during the holidays. Takoma Park, Maryland police try to do these checks daily, but if there are other more urgent calls, those take precedent.
Other municipalities offer similar programs in the DMV: Manassas, Leesburg and Chevy Chase Village.