Residential burglaries seem to be on the rise in different areas of the city. If your neighborhood hasn't fallen victim to these types of crimes, give it time, they will occur. In the meantime I am reminding residents to close and lock garage doors and remove lawn equipment from yards, trailers and/or pickup beds.

FWPD has a program that may interest residents wishing to mark their valuables; RAPIDS. RAPIDS is a burglary deterrent for residents or business owners. This service is available to all residents and free of charge. Using your official TX DL or ID card #, residents receive up to 10 RAPIDS labels with owner's information encrypted in bar coded format ensuring valuables can be traced and identified if ever stolen or recovered. These RAPIDS labels are placed on equipment next to other labels, such as serial and model labels. Also, residents can go online to "REPORT IT" where serial numbers and photos are stored of their valuables until needed. Again this service is free of charge. Residents are encouraged to tag their lawn equipment using software of their choosing. One might choose to do some "old school" preventative measures by simply recording serial numbers, model numbers and taking pictures of items. Secure this information in a safe place until needed. The important thing to do is to mark valuables, inside and outside of resident, using whatever marking/recording system of choice. In many burglary cases, residents have little to no information stored pertaining to their valuables. Detectives have a better chance of recovering stolen property when serial numbers, model numbers or images of stolen property is made available to them during the course of an investigation. For more information or if you would like to take advantage of our free "RAPIDS" stickers call Rosalina Mendez at 682-225-0517.