Derby Community Safety Partnership and Derbyshire Constabulary will be distributing nearly 800 free shed alarms in hot spot areas over the coming weeks to tackle an increase in the number of shed burglaries.

Figures show that the hardest hit areas are in parts of Alvaston and the Morley Estate where the CSP Crime Prevention team and Police Community Support Officers will be concentrating their work.

Letters will be delivered to households offering to fit the free shed alarms and households in other areas across the city will then be targeted, inviting them to apply for the free alarms.

Over the past two years there have been more than 1,000 shed break ins across the city and Police are concerned that this will increase even further in the coming weeks with a combination of the warm weather and the tough economic climate.

Sergeant David Simmonds from Derbyshire police explained: “There have been an increasing number of shed burglaries throughout the city but particularly in these hot spot areas.

“We are therefore keen to support local residents to keep their property safe particularly in these harder economic times when sheds are often targeted for high value equipment that can be easily sold on the black market.”

Derby Community Safety Partnership Anti Social Behaviour Manager Craig Keen added: “The shed alarms are a highly visible way of protecting sheds and the property stored in them and have already had a positive effect in areas where they have been distributed. 

“They are therefore effective as a deterrent and also often lead to arrest and prosecution as the alarms have alerted neighbours who have called the police.  Therefore a £5 alarm could turn out to the best money spent this summer and simple measures are often the most effective.

Leader of Derby City Council Harvey Jennings concluded: “This is part of a summer-wide campaign tackling a number of issues including leaving windows and doors open at home and in the car during the summer months. Ensuring that all are safely closed or locked is a simple crime prevention measure but needs to be kept on everyone’s radar.

“Whilst we are offering the alarms in hot spot areas, it is important that everybody in the city with sheds take necessary steps to ensure that they do not become victims of this kind of crime.”

Among the local residents to benefit from the campaign is Jim Hardy who lives in Booth Street, Alvaston.

Jim said: “This is an excellent campaign as it focuses on what we should all be doing to make our properties less vulnerable to crime.

“When you consider the worth of the equipment in a garden shed, it makes you realise that investing in good quality locks and alarms makes sense.”

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Sarah Jenkin-Jones, JJPR, Tel: 01332 515102/07951 945 665; sarah@jjpublicrelations.co.uk

Picture shows: from left: PCSO Jarrod Hobson, Jim Hardy and Keith Brampton from the CSP Crime Prevention Team