In various cantons, the number of burglaries has risen again for the first time in years. Towns near motorway junctions are particularly popular with the perpetrators.
As the days get shorter, burglar season begins. This year, the perpetrators are particularly active.
The pandemic years 2020 and 2021 were an enormously difficult time not only for the hotel and hospitality industry and many other sectors of the economy. An industry that has a miserable reputation also suffered greatly from the measures taken to contain the corona virus: burglars.
Because most people worked from home and kept travel to a minimum, they found far fewer abandoned houses. The number of burglaries, which had already been declining in the past, therefore fell again sharply in 2020 and 2021.
Record value for burglaries in the canton of Aargau
People are now moving more freely within Switzerland and Europe. And the police authorities are already registering an increase in burglaries. Various cantons are reporting a sharp increase in crime, including Aargau. “We’ve been observing for a good year that criminals are becoming more active again,” says Markus Gisin, chief of the Aargau criminal police. He expects that over 2,000 burglaries will be committed in the canton in the current year – this is the highest number in five years.
The increase is in contrast to the longer-term development, which had started long before Corona. In the last ten years, the number of burglaries in Germany has steadily decreased. In 2012, more than 73,000 burglaries and thefts were reported across Switzerland. By 2021, this number had more than halved. A trend reversal is now becoming apparent – not only in Aargau, but also in various other cantons.
According to Gisin, burglaries in private homes increased just as much as in commercial properties. The main search was for cash and other valuables. Criminal offenses in the “Other” category also rose sharply, including thefts in underground car parks, cellars and allotment gardens. Burglars often find it easier to gain access to these peripheral areas – but the loot is often worth it anyway.
In particular, large numbers of e-bikes and other expensive bicycles were stolen here. There was also an increase in thefts on construction sites – not only copper rolls were stolen there, but also construction machinery, says Gisin.
Burglars are particularly active along the freeways
In Aargau, towns that are either close to the motorway junction or close to the state border have proven to be particularly popular with criminals. Municipalities along the A 1 and A 3 record significantly higher values. “These places allow the burglars to quickly get away from the crime scene and go into hiding,” says Gisin. A considerable proportion of the perpetrators are people who are not resident in Switzerland. Rather, they traveled to Switzerland for the sole reason of helping themselves.
In most cases, however, the burglars do not proceed in a targeted manner on their thieving tours. Prior planning should have taken place for very few crimes, says Gisin. Rather, the perpetrators looked on the spot in which houses no one was at home – and where they could easily get in. “The motto ‘opportunity makes thieves’ still applies.” It also doesn’t seem to matter to the perpetrators how wealthy the citizens are. “The villa is not preferred to the anonymous apartment building,” says Gisin.
Benefits of intrusion software controversial
In the fight against burglars, the Aargau cantonal police also uses software that uses data from existing cases to analyze when and where future criminal offenses are particularly likely and which criminal property could be stolen. Depending on the result of the intrusion algorithm, the police increase the patrol presence in certain areas or at certain times of the day and increase public awareness.
However, it is difficult to measure what the software actually brings. If a burglary happens in an area like she predicted, you can say the software was right, says Gisin. “However, if there is no burglary, you can take the position that the initiated prevention worked based on the prediction of the software.” At the same time, of course, the opposite could also be asserted; namely that there was no break-in because the software was wrong. Gisin emphasizes that the number of burglaries cannot be reduced with the software alone. In combination with other tools to combat burglary, however, it is quite useful.
However, it is much more important that the population consistently locks the doors and windows. Nothing, it can be concluded, deters burglars more than this.