a rash of break in's

[Tony Lopes]

greetings
I NEED HELP! I am a off site manager of a small 22 space mobile home park It is not in the best area of town, but never the less we have had very few break in's in the last 10 years. This last year however we have had close to a dozen . Some people have had radios stolen from there cars others have had there homes broken into my tennents have lost a great deal of personel property the park is small sitting on only one acre with only one entrance out. my question is what should I do? the police are no help. We have talked about neighbor hood watches having all tennents install alarms on there homes maybe a security camera ? Since we have some MH'S for sale almost all the time It is hard to tell if people are looking to buy a home are casing the place. I thought about installing a security gate at the main Entrance of the park but the prices I have been gettig are around $10,000 + I heard they break down a lot any advice would be greatly appreciated

[Chrissy]

Controlled access entry gates won't keep out people who walk in or climb over, and are not much of a security feature. You have some serious problems, and they cannot be fixed by you alone. You need the help and cooperation of your residents here. The neighborhood watch program works. I have seen it in action in many places and in one community the actual crime rate went down 80% in just 4 short months because the residents became diligent about watching. All of the other suggestions you have are OK, but require you and your time and huge amounts of money. And, most are then material things which are subject to further damage and vandalism. My suggestion is to have a heart-to-heart with your residents. Tell them it is time for them to take some responsibility for the safe-keeping of their items, and the things that happen in their neighborhood. If they are tired of it, they will help. Without them, there is little you can do to make a huge difference. Maybe one of the police officers or sheriff's deputies will move in - that might also help, but the main difference will come when the residents get involved.