With the recession not having yet "bottomed out", cities like Columbia,S.C. are seeing an increase in crime, but especially in property crime. Columbia has the second highest unemployment rate in the nation, reports the New York Times. Not that Columbia is alone in this surge of property crime, statistics show the unemployment rate is directly affecting this increase.
Property crime will include credit card fraud and identity theft which makes any home computer extramural valuable to a thief. a lot of these thefts include pawning the computer, and then another thief purchasing it from a pawn shop just to retrieve information.
The Times quotes a criminologist: "When the economy falters, struggling local governments fail to add enough police officers, which indirectly elevates crime, said James A. Fox, a criminologist at Northeastern University in Boston.
“Burglaries, auto breaks, anything pawn-able gets stolen,” Officer George Potash said to the Times.
Basically what Columbia faces is a shrinking police population. Think of the size of most police forces operating at the same number as was typical during the 1970's.
Though there are several home security systems, some are more affordable than others. If you check out Home Security Blog, there are plenty of security tips to keep your family and home possessions safe, or at least safer. You can find information such as how implementing security measures are tax deductible, and this fact alone is timely considering most Americans have been hit by the recession in one way or the other.
Ms. Myers, the head of a tenant association in the northern part of the city in Colombia told the Times: “It’s going to get worse,” Ms. Myers said. “You’ve got guys who have kids, who are on the hook for child support. If selling drugs is the only way they can get the money, they’re going to do it. It’s quick money. Even the ones that had jobs and got laid off and can’t find other jobs, if they got to sell drugs or rob somebody, they got to do what they got to do.”
