By Mark Carlisle

Independent Newsmedia

As Thanksgiving comes to a close, Black Friday marks the official start of the holiday shopping season. However, with these high-volume crowds come high volumes of theft.

Glendale’s major shopping centers saw stark rises in larceny, or the unlawful taking of another’s property, over Black Friday weekend in 2016. Glendale Police Department and shopping center security teams are working to protect shoppers from thieves this year, though there are precautions shoppers can take as well.

“We want to make sure that we’re doing everything that we can as a police department to keep our citizens and visitors to our city safe,” said Sgt. Scott Waite of GPD. “And so that’s why we take the extra time and extra resources to put in those high traffic areas.”

GPD will send officers to Glendale’s main shopping centers – Arrowhead Towne Center, Westgate Entertainment District and the adjacent Tanger Outlets and Cabela’s – to provide extra security throughout the holiday season, beginning on Thanksgiving, Mr. Waite said. Additionally, many large retail stores will hire off-duty GPD officers to work security.

The larceny rate in Glendale as a whole increased by only 5.4 percent comparing Black Friday weekend – beginning Thursday on Thanksgiving running through Sunday – to the year-to-date rate through Nov. 23, according to GPD’s crime statistics.

However, the area that contains Westgate Entertainment District, Tanger Outlets and Cabela’s saw its larceny rate increase nearly three-fold, and the larceny rate at Arrowhead Towne Center over Black Friday weekend was more than four times higher than what it had been the rest of the year.

Much of the theft that occurs during this weekend is shoplifters stealing from businesses. Mr. Waite said that while shoplifting numbers do go up during the holiday shopping season, it’s not GPD’s focus. In-store security is left mainly to the stores’ security teams while GPD focuses on the outside.

“What we’re looking more for is keeping people safe in the parking lots as they’re going to and from the businesses, so that they aren’t a victim of vehicle burglary, a purse snatch type of thing we want to make sure that people feel safe.”

Vehicles can be easy targets for thieves during the holiday shopping season, Mr. Waite said.

“Those are crimes of convenience, and when somebody knows that people are going to the mall or going to a business, and they’re going to be in there for thirty minutes, an hour, two hours. They know that their vehicle’s going to be unattended,” he said.

Mr. Waite also said that thieves might look to break into cars during the busy shopping season in hopes that the owner may have left behind valuable gifts in the vehicle, such as electronics or jewelry. He recommends that if shoppers need to leave purchases in their car, that they not leave them in plain sight – storing them in the trunk or under a seat instead.

Jeff Teetsel, development manager at Westgate Entertainment District, said he could not disclose much of the specific of Westgate’s security tactics, but said that security cameras are a key part of the shopping center’s security efforts.

“We take the safety of our customers very seriously, and we implement a variety of security measures, including paid patrol, off-duty police presence, a network of security cameras and communication and coordination with the city of Glendale police department, among other things,” Mr. Teetsel said.

GPD is working with another type of security camera, called Sky Watch, to monitor parking lots.

“It’s kind of a mobile tower that we can put up that has video cameras on it, and we can place it like in the middle of a parking lot and it will video areas of the parking lot,” Mr. Waite said. “That way, it’s just kind of letting the bad guys know that... they are being watched not only by us but by cameras as well.”

The Sky Watch camera is operated by an officer hoisted up by a hydraulic lift.

Mr. Waite said that the department also sees an increase in traffic collisions because of the busy shopping season.

“People are staying out, late getting up early,” he said. “Sometimes they’re very focused on getting to that store where they need to go, and they just drive a little too fast or they’re not paying attention the way they should.”

Glendale has not seen any madness of shoppers getting trampled that some other cities have had, as far as Mr. Waite can remember. GPD officers will check in on those waiting in line for “doorbuster” sales to make sure everyone is acting orderly, though much of the responsibility is on the retailers.

“Just our presence alone kind of keeps people under control,” Mr. Waite said. “Really, then it’s up to the business to make sure that they instruct the patrons on ‘hey, we’re asking you not to run, don’t push,’ things like that.”

Glendale Police will send extra patrols to high traffic shopping areas like Arrowhead Towne Center and Westgate Entertainment District during the Thanksgiving weekend in an effort to deter thieves. Christina Henning, senior manager of marketing at Arrowhead Towne Center, like Mr. Teetsel said she could not disclose much of her center’s security strategies, but agreed with Mr. Waite that relationships between businesses and police are key to shopper safety.

“The safety of our shoppers and retailers is paramount at all times of the year,” Ms. Henning said. “We invest in state-of-the-art security systems, in highly trained on-site security professionals and we are proud of our excellent working relationships with local police.”

With multiple mass shootings in the news in the past few months, Mr. Waite acknowledges that being in large crowds can put some people at unease.

“We live in a day and age now where anytime there’s a group of people coming in together, people get concerned about that, you know, lone wolf coming in with bad intentions.”

However, Mr. Waite encouraged shoppers to adhere to the “if you see something, say something” adage. He also expressed confidence in GPD to protect its residents as the department has experience with crowds, serving a city with two major professional sports teams as well as other high-traffic community events.

Mr. Teetsel expressed a similar confidence in his security team and similarly requested shoppers to help security if they see something suspicious.

“Westgate Entertainment District is accustomed to large crowds, with the frequent events at the adjacent Gila River Arena and University of Phoenix Stadium. We encourage shoppers to abide by the ‘if you see something, say something’ thought process.”

Mr. Waite’s last piece of safety advice was to not get caught up in the frenzy of the crowds.

“Just be patient,” he said. “There’s nothing that’s so valuable that it’s worth getting hurt over hurting somebody else for and so take your time, be patient and enjoy the holiday season.”