Maple Valley Police, in partnership with neighboring agencies, have developed an anti-burglary and prowl strike team in response to a rash of residential and commercial burglaries in the city.

The burglaries have occurred during the past two months, according to information provided by Chief Michelle Bennett.

This team is made up of officers from Maple Valley, Covington, Black Diamond, Kent and King County providing an additional 192 hours of patrol in the community from Oct. 13-18, which helped on duty officers canvass Maple Valley’s neighborhood’s and businesses.

“This unique effort involved other communities experiencing the same types of burglaries that have happened in Maple Valley,” Bennett said in a statement. “By working together, the message to the criminals is to think twice about committing a crime in the cities of southeast King County.”

This effort to combat the uptick in burglaries in September and October is part of a three-pronged approach.

First, the joint enforcement team arrested suspects for burglaries, driving under the influence and narcotics as well as for felony and misdemeanor warrants.

“Officers actually caught a suspect casing one commercial property,” Bennett said. “Another officer found two local businesses’ front doors unlocked.”

These discoveries provided key information that allowed officers to identify other burglars and car prowlers, the second prong of the approach, through working together the departments used the intelligence gathered to develop probable cause to arrest a pair of suspects in the burglaries after receiving fingerprint hits through AFIS (automated fingerprint identification system) on the individuals.

During this special enforcement period, no additional burglaries were reported within the city, with suspects asking officers “Why are there so many cops in Maple Valley?” or telling the officers that they were “scared because of all the cops around.”

The third part of the strategy brings in the community as part of a pro-active effort.

Maple Valley police officers will host a Residential Crime Prevention Summit at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at Tahoma Junior High.

Bennett and other officers will discuss recent crime trends as well as crime prevention tips and address security related concerns.

Residents are encouraged to close their garage doors as well lock the doors and windows of their homes because for many of the recent crimes, suspects had easy access thanks to open doors and windows.

Bennett added that it would be wise to look into alarm systems as well as consider organizing a block watch program in your neighborhood.

For more information on crime prevention or the summit contact Officer Jeff Harmon at 425-413-5158.