Local police leave this card on your car in "your driveway" - good or bad?

[Skip Intro]

I live in an apartment complex in an area surrounded by a lot of other apartment complexes. I've been here for over a year, and have never seen nor heard any criminal/police activity here in that time.

A few nights ago, I got in late, after midnight. After a couple of hours, I realized I had left something in my car that I needed, so I put on a sweatshirt and walked down to the parking area (visible to many, myself included, from our apartment windows). When I got to the parking area, I noticed my car, and every car within sight had this orange card on the windshield.

On the front, this card gave some stats on car burglary, and tips on how to prevent it. On the back was a form (filled out by the officer), with little places to be checked depending on the specific situation. Here's what the card said, on this side, word for word:
---------
NCPD (my abbreviation): Citizen Advisory (police seal)

Auto Burglary: Are you the next victim? If I were a thief, I would have easily stolen the following clearly visible on your vehicle:

- Cell phone/pager..... -Sporting Equipment....-Purse and/or wallet
-Shopping bags.... -Electronic equipment....-Other

- Your vehicle was left unlocked

-Your vehicle was left parted in a secluded or dimly=lighted area. Please park in high traffic areas with safe, adequate lighting.

-If I were a thief, I would have moved on because your vehicle was properly locked and uninviting to me
----------

Electronic equipment was checked on my card - I had an ac adapter in the front seat.

Now, at first I felt comforted knowing the police were out and about and making a presence known. And I still, for the most part, feel that way.

But it occurred to me that what had taken place was, in the wee hours of the morning, the local police had gone to each parked car in my neighborhood, peered inside the windows, and, in some fashion, taken inventory of what was visible.

Again, I feel that good intentions were at the heart of this, and that promoting security was the goal, but some questions have cropped up in my mind about this.

Don't I have a right to privacy at my home? What if I had had something questionable in my car? What if I had had an almanac on the front seat (my grandmother used to give those as Christmas gifts)? If this is a good practice, then why not peer onto my porch/balcony? Why not shine a light thru the open windows of my apartment to help me be safe?

Before I wasn't worried about burglars. Now, I'm a little worried about the burglars and the pd.

Again, in the big scheme of things, I know this isn't a big deal. Local cops trying to subdue some crime problem I'm oblivious to, I'm sure. And part of me is glad to know they're out there. But part of me is still nagged by these questions.

What do you think?

[fishguy]

1. Neither really

Just the police doing their job.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

2. I think you are right to worry about burglars and the pd.

The 'plain sight' exception to the Fourth Amendment is a favorite one. Be careful also, that in any interaction with the police, you don't do anything that could be construed as a 'furtive movement'. It could just be fatal.

[Exgeneral]

3. that's what I was thinking.

probable cause for a fishing expedition.

Imagine if you'd left a copy of "Anarchist's Cookbook" on the front seat. Think maybe the dogs would be out?

[Nay]

4. I wouldn't get worked up about this. It's really pretty helpful, and

it wasn't like they were prying your trunk open or anything. They didn't see anything more than what any casual passerby would see.

Now, if you get a PD card stuck in your front door with one of THESE marked, I'd worry:

__ Man! Get some new underwear! Didn't your mom ever tell you you could be in a car wreck anytime, and you need to look good in the emergency room??

__ Don't post your passwords right next to your computer. People could hack in.

__ Good job on cleaning the bathroom. This place stinks so much it would run any burglar off.

[el_gato]

14. it amazes me how people make excuses for the cops

"Yeah we need you to bend over so we can make
sure your wiping your ass correctly. It's for
your own safety you know!"

[Loonman]

16. Yeah, it's the Goddamn KGB

Jesus Christ, latch on to a clue.....


:eyes:

[Rabrrrrrr]

5. So now the thieves know that if they just follow the cops,

that a) they can move more quickly, knowing that the contents of the car are already on the cards in the windshield, and b) they'll know for sure, once the cops leave, that that parking lot isn't gonna be checked on by cops for probably days.

[ScreamingMeemie]

6. Very good point Rabrrrrr. Nice for the cops to leave an inventory.

Yikes!

[Feanorcurufinwe]

9. LOL

[Skip Intro]

7. Wonder if they'll be back to see if their advice was heeded?

I still have that adaptor on my front seat. (Maybe I'll put a padlock on it. lol- sorry, i'm an incurable smarta**).

[RhodaGrits]

8. such "help"

the sheriff would walk down the street every night and rattle the front doors of all the businesses... the only times my burglar alarm ever went off in the middle of the night was when the deputy sheriff would set it off *WARNING WARNING INTRUDER ALERT* waking all the tenants and making me get out of bed at 3 am bc the last kid out didn't lock the door before closing at night. I kept muttering "he's just trying to help" but grrrrrr.

[BiggJawn]

11. And the biggest crime in 20 years was....

...a bunch of kids out by the water tower with a 12-pack, duely confiscated (and disposed of) by the sheriff, right?
:7

"Say, do they still blow that curfew whistle every night at 9:30?"

"Naw, it woke everybody up, so they stopped that after a week or so..."

[PVnRT]

10. Are you sure it was the cops?

Just because it has a police seal on it doesn't mean it's official police stuff. When I lived in the north 'burbs of Chicago, I found fliers from auto insurance companies all the time - it might be something like that.

Or, it could be something that the apartment complex owners did to try to point out possible crimes to people who lived there. I don't think there was a nefarious intention in all this, but it does sound a little creepy. I would ask just to make sure.

[Deja Q]

12. I'd be appreciative...

I think the police officer was just trying to be nice. Too may people today don't get involved and many will watch when they see a crime happen, espeically if it's one person beating the snot out of another.

Always be worried about burglars. This isn't Canada or any other civilized nation. This is America, land of opportunists.

As much as I have my own quibbles against cops (they'll stop me for having a bluish-white light over my rear license plate that's offensive to nobody and too low to the ground to be seen as official, but I've seen Chevy trucks sold with far brighter, unfettered BLUE lights on both front and back that should have cops from miles around pulling them over yet don't, not to forget the cops who'll use their duty lights to get through red stoplights...), but the one who left you the tag is one I'd love to say "Hi" to.

[SheilaT]

13. One of the things cops tend to go on about

is people leaving their cars unlocked. The last three or four years a staple of holiday shopping stories in my area is about people who get things stolen out of their unlocked cars. And the unlocked cars are ones parked in the lot of the largest shopping mall around. It's clear the cops think that the people who leave their cars unlocked and filled with Christmas gifts are idiots.

I never used to lock my car when I drove old beat up vehicles, but ever since I got affluent enough to buy a new car I've taken to locking it everywhere but inside my garage.

[Kellanved]

15. As long as it's just a card

Here the police is allowed to tow away unlocked cars - very unpleasant, expensive and one gets a ticket too. Of course only, if the car is not parked on private property.