Despite tragedy, home burglary is a crime that’s fading away
As long as humans have occupied dwellings, someone has tried to break in and take their stuff.
I imagine even unscrupulous Neanderthals tiptoed into their neighbors’ caves to steal mammoth bone jewelry.
The term “burglar” is a mixture of the Latin words burgus, a fortress or castle, with latro, which is a thief or plunderer.
Burglary is classified as a “property” crime, as opposed to being “violent.” Even so, it’s an invasive, emotionally gutting and scary event — especially if the thief finds someone at home.
Not long after moving to Atlanta, we had our door kicked in and almost everything carried away: speakers, turntable, receiver, TV, VCR, microwave, camera, even a typewriter. (It was that long ago.) The guy, as I deduced, had to go in and out of the house six or seven times to hump our stuff to his car. So, he had to work for his bounty.
I was seething and freaked out thinking some lowlife walked in and out of the home we had worked so hard to achieve. The place where our baby daughter slept.
I fantasized about flicking the lights out and sitting with a baseball bat, waiting for the thief to return to steal the replacement belongings. I wanted to hurt that slime ball.
The detrimental impact of burglary has made it a felony that can bring up to 20 years in prison, although judges tell me five years, or even much less, is common. That is, if they catch the guy, which is far less than 10% of the time.
The Atlanta Police Department never caught my guy. Or even appeared to try real hard. It was at a time when murder and mayhem ruled and cops had more pressing duties.
I bring all this up in light of two deadly attempted burglaries in metro Atlanta in recent days. On Monday, a man was shot to death in Gwinnett County by occupants of a home he allegedly was trying to burgle.
Two days earlier, a woman was shot to death after driving back to her DeKalb County home when her doorbell camera showed men trying to break in. Police have distributed photos of the suspects. One image is pretty clear and will hopefully lead to arrests.
Despite these well-publicized crimes, the number of residential burglaries has dropped dramatically in recent years, and through the decades.
One study, published in 2021, said: “Residential burglary in the United States has declined by over 80% across the last four decades, representing a major social phenomenon that remains largely unexplained.”
And the frequency of the crime across the country took another big dip following COVID, when more people worked at home.
Atlanta’s drop has been eye-popping. As of Saturday, there have been 1,184 reported burglaries in the city, almost half what it was at the same time in 2019 (2,156.)
That’s just icing on the cake. In 2009, there were more than 6,000 reported burglaries by this time of the year. That’s five times the current rate.
Atlanta PD didn’t want to talk, which was surprising. I mean, this story was on a batting tee for them. They could have bragged about “good police work” and such.
To get a sense of the drop, I called a couple of veteran lawmen — Jeff Glazier, former deputy chief in Atlanta, and Lou Dekmar, who has 50 years in law enforcement, 32 as chief, most recently in LaGrange. I also called Adam Gelb, CEO of the Council on Criminal Justice, a nonprofit think tank.
All three quickly ventured the theory that rapidly improving security cameras, which are getting better and cheaper, have become ubiquitous and have driven the reduction.
“I can plug in a camera and immediately get an alert that something is happening,” Glazier said. “They are high-definition and low cost and have solved, or at least thwarted, a lot of crimes.”
The cops both noted that online crime is easier and carries less risk of being shot, bitten by a dog or spotted by a passing squad car.
“You have a new generation of potential criminals,” Dekmar said. “If they commit crimes, it will be online, like online fraud.”
Also, the population is aging out. Criminals are like athletes, they have a prime and then it’s over.
“They get to a point where they say: ‘I’m not doing this anymore,’” Dekmar said.
The crack epidemic of the 1980s and early 1990s created a tsunami of junkies ready to do whatever for their next hit, Glazier said. That has subsided to a great degree.
Gelb noted the risk/reward equation has increasingly made burglary less attractive. The risk — more cameras and even longer jail sentences — outweighs the reward.
Gelb noted that people have less cash at home, iPhones are harder to unlock, flat-screen TVs and other electronic devices are cheaper today and bring less resale.
And it’s increasingly harder and more difficult to fence stolen property in pawn shops.
Many criminals have pivoted. It’s easier and less dangerous to break into dozens of cars at night looking for wallets and guns than it is breaking into someone’s home.
At their core, most criminals are lazy and looking to cut corners. And burglary is lots of work.
You’ve got to case your target. Approach the location unseen. Determine no one is there. Break in. Hope there’s something worth stealing. Carry it off from the location. And then find somewhere to sell at a price to make the effort worthwhile.
But, Gelb cautioned, “Just because the numbers are down doesn’t mean that it’s not a problem or that it will stay that way.”
About the Author
Bill Torpy, who writes about metro Atlanta for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, joined the newspaper in 1990.
