In response to rise in home break-ins, Glendale police use ‘unorthodox’ ways to address burglaries

For a week last month, Glendale residents driving into the Chevy Chase Canyon neighborhood may have seen a digital roadside sign that boasted, in two slides of capital letters: “Burglar arrested in area faces life in prison.”

The sign referred to a Pasadena gang member accused of breaking into a Glendale home on Feb. 4 occupied by a mother and her two young children, then fleeing through neighboring yards with his accomplice before they were caught.

If convicted, Joshua Muema, who will turn 21 later this month, would be a third-striker, and therefore would face 27 years to life in state prison, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

Glendale Police Chief Robert Castro said the benefit of the “unorthodox” signage tool is threefold: it serves as a crime deterrent to potential burglars scanning the neighborhood for victims, informs residents about enforcement efforts and may remind neighbors to call the police when they see something suspicious.

Thieves, he said, might think, “Is there a camera on that? Did it just take a picture of my car? Do I want to be in this neighborhood? I’m going to get out of here.”

The initiative was in response to a spike in home break-ins toward the end of last year and subsequent concerns voiced by neighborhood residents.

Glendale resident Alex Djarbekian, who has spearheaded efforts to plan a community meeting later this month with police and his Emerald Isle neighbors, called the signage a passive approach to policing.

“These things don’t deter real criminals,” he said, adding that crooks know they won’t spend life in prison for a burglary conviction. “Until they see the area is a hot zone with increased police activity, they’re going to keep coming to these areas.”

Last October, police logged 41 residential burglaries in Glendale, nearly double the monthly 2015 average of 24, according to statistics released by the agency. Those numbers include thefts from cars parked in residential parking garages or residential storage units, as well as home break-ins.

In each of the following two months, police responded to 31 residential burglaries.

Since then, the monthly numbers have dropped. Police logged 14 residential burglaries in January and 10 in February.

From January of last year through the end of last month, police arrested 35 suspects — many of whom worked in teams — on suspicion of residential burglary.

According to Castro, about half of those suspects would have otherwise been in custody for other charges if not for Proposition 47, which reduced penalties for several criminal offenses, and AB 109, the state’s criminal realignment law.

Castro partially attributed the recent drop in burglaries to the newly-formed community impact bureau, which includes a lieutenant and six officers, as well as a special enforcement detail consisting of four officers and a sergeant, who work with a crime analyst to identify and respond to problem areas without being bogged down by regular calls for service.

For example, if a home break-in is reported in a neighborhood, another one is likely to follow in the next 72 hours, Castro said.

So during that time, members of the community impact bureau may covertly patrol the area — in plain clothes and an unmarked police car — in an attempt to catch the burglars in the act.

“When we catch them, we not only clear cases here, but we’re clearing cases in the whole area,” Castro said, referring to neighboring cities. “These guys don’t know boundaries.”

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Alene Tchekmedyian, alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com

Twitter: @atchek

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