Police Chief Warns Criminals To Stay Clear of Danville

Police Chief Steve Simpkins put it very simply, "We want to make Danville a no-go destination for criminals."

"Chiefs in other cities this size would probably like to have our numbers, but it's my job to keep the number of crimes going down," he said, noting also that the town has seen an overall decrease in property crimes recently.

Danville Police reported 94 burglaries in 2012, compared to the 147 reported by San Ramon Police.

There has been a 1 percent drop nationwide in property crimes in cities of similar size to Danville, according to preliminary statistics in 2012 from the Federal Bureau of Investigations.

Chief Simpkins estimated that the Police Department this year has seen "seven to nine" auto burglaries a month. That's no comfort, of course, to victims of burglaries.

"We're lucky we don't have a lot of burglaries, but one is still too many," Chief Simpkins said. "We take any crime very seriously. It's a crime against quality of life."

"We want residents to report anything out of the ordinary. No one knows their neighborhood like the people who live there. They're going to see if something's wrong," Chief Simpkins said.

A few tips to dissuade auto burglars:

• Don't leave valuables in your car.
• If you must leave valuable items in your car, place them out of sight.
• Leave no trace that there might be valuables in your vehicle, such as docking stations or connector cables.
• Try to park in busy, well-lighted areas.
• Lock all your vehicle's doors.
• Set any alarm or anti-theft device.

• Backpacks, gym bags, briefcases, day-planners
• Cash/coins, checkbooks and credit/debit cards
• Wallets and purses (even when hidden under a seat or in an unlocked glove compartment)
• Laptop computers, iPods and MP3 players, (and docking stations)
• Cell phones (and chargers)
• Portable GPS navigation systems
• Stereo/CD players (and faceplates), amps, speakers
• Jewelry, keys, mai, tools
• Anything of obvious value.