TEMPLE, Texas (KXXV) — Temple PD is offering a program to keep your house safer while you're out for the holiday season.
- To fill out a form, visit the police department in Downtown Temple.
- There were 16 home burglary cases in 2023 in October, November and December. So far this year, there have been 15.
- The program is year-round.
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"I hope everyone does their best to keep their house locked and make sure when you leave, leave the lights on, and we leave the TV on when we are out," James Gonzalez, a Temple resident, said.
Whether Gonzalez is out picking up groceries or on vacation somewhere far away, there's no shortage of caution when he leaves his house.
Temple Police Department is helping our community by offering their house watch program this holiday season.
"I think it's a good idea," Gonzalez said.
"I wasn't aware of the program, but it'll be nice because we have a lot of little kids in the area that run around, and more patrol in the area would be good because they tend to speed anyways."
Here's how it works—you can go to the police headquarters on East Avenue A and fill out a form.
Your house and street will then be placed on close patrol for your chosen time period.
"I know this time of year there tends to be more prowls and burglaries when people are gone, and people know it," Gonzalez said.
25 News' Marc Monroy did some digging to get holiday home burglary numbers, and here's what he found.
From October through December of last year, there were 16 cases. If we check out the numbers for this year, there have been 15 so far.
"Where I'm from, they're having a spate of business and home burglaries in Washington state," Gonzalez said.
"People are smashing in and stealing stuff. It's bizarre."
Although the numbers from Temple are lower than those of his hometown —James won't hesitate to take extra precautions to keep his home safe.
