From Texas Standard.
Few modern creations match the convenience of online holiday shopping – that is, unless you’ve had a package stolen from your front porch. Across the country, mail and delivery burglaries are on the rise, but one central Texas Police chief knows just the place place to send packages this holiday season.
Last week, the Round Rock Police Department launched Operation Front Porch, a program aimed at reducing the number of front door burglaries during the holiday season. Residents can ship packages directly to the city’s police department address and pick them up during normal business hours once they arrive.
RRPD Chief Allen Banks said the idea for the program arose out of a need to keep police officers involved in higher priority calls. Despite the extra work needed to process the packages, Banks said another main goal of the program is to increase community safety.
“I don’t care if we get one package or we get 1,000 packages,” Banks says. “That’s one package less that will be stolen off a front porch. That’s what it’s all about, to make sure we keep our community safe, keep them happy, and keep quality of life as high as possible.”
Banks says that last year, thirteen packages were stolen from front porches in the Round Rock area. Although he says it’s too early in the season to determine the popularity of Operation Front Porch, Banks says he already considers the program a success.
“The minute we received that first package shows me we were successful,” Banks says. “Why? Because our community trusts us enough to bring in their holiday packages and send them over to our department. That’s a success in itself.”
Details on the Operation Front Door program can be found here.
Written by Rachel Zein.
