Cops offer programs, advice to limit holiday burglaries

With the holiday season in full swing and nights still getting longer, local police agencies are warning residents to take extra precautions as packages get left at front doors and homes are left empty for vacations.

Tiburon police spokeswoman Laurie Nilsen said her department will host a community meeting on crime prevention in the coming weeks and has been issuing tips directly through social-media platforms such as Nextdoor.com and in the town’s Tiburon Talk newsletter.

Those include residents making use of the department’s vacation house-check program, registering surveillance cameras, expanding neighborhood-watch efforts and making homes look occupied when owners plan to be away.

This season has been relatively quiet and there’s no indication of a seasonal uptick. So far there have been three home burglaries in October and November, on par with the zero to five for the same months each year since 2017. On average, Tiburon saw just 5.5 home burglaries between October and February for winters 2017-2018 to 2020-2021, with January’s spike making winter 2021-2022 an outlier. Even then, the town has seen just 13 burglaries to date all year — the same or less than eight of the past 10 years.

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