The Town of Chevy Chase View provides supplemental community policing services by employing Montgomery County Police Officers to work part-time in the Town on their days off and/or before or after their scheduled MCPD shifts. These officers are focused on community policing efforts.
Montgomery County Police Online Citizen Reporting Tool
The Montgomery County Police Department maintains a system called CopLogic which is an online citizen reporting service that makes filing certain police reports easier and faster. The program can only be used to report these types of specific incidents that occurred in Montgomery County: thefts under $10,000, vandalism, identity theft, and lost property. It can also be used to provide tips to solve crimes.
- News – For more information on the police department, crime statistics and other police-related issues, please use the links below:
- Online Reporting Tool – Enter a Report
County Police Crime Data
The Montgomery County Police Department has in place a crime data service. Residents can access neighborhood crime incident information via the internet, 24 hours a day. Users of the service may also elect to receive free-email alerts of crime which occurs close to their homes. View crime data. The system will request permission to track your physical location. Otherwise, use the map to scroll to your location.
Community Crime Prevention Tips
Sergeant Warren Jensen shares the following tips to help curtail or at least reduce unattended property crimes. The subjects who commit this type of unattended property crime are typically non-confrontational and often go for the low hanging fruit. Only a very small percentage of theft from vehicles results in broken windows picked locks or vehicle damage. A majority of this type of crime can be eliminated by taking a couple of simple proactive steps:
Whether the vehicle is parked on the street or to the rear of the house in a driveway, it needs to be locked when it is unattended. This is the most important measure that can be taken to prevent this crime. The criminals who steal from vehicles roam through the neighborhoods and pull on door handles. They almost always bypass the vehicles with locked doors. Once they find a vehicle that is unlocked (which unfortunately is often the case), they rummage through for a few minutes and take loose change, GPS units, laptops or anything else of some value that is easy to carry away. They often carry backpacks or bags and do not leave until the bag is full.
GPS units, laptops, phone chargers, currency, EZ pass transponders and anything else should be removed or hidden. Never keep keys to your vehicle inside. That also applies to keys to other vehicles. The same goes for house keys. Do not let the criminals “window shop.” If the reward is great enough, they may want to break the window to access that item. If the door is locked and they see nothing significant, chances are they will move on.
The criminals often spend a good amount of time in neighborhoods looking for vehicles from which to steal. If it appears someone doesn’t belong in the neighborhood, is acting suspiciously (looking into vehicles and trying door handles), and has a bag or backpack, please notify the police. They will send a car out and attempt to locate that individual to assess the situation and take appropriate action.
Again, these types of criminals are typically non-confrontational and would rather do their crimes in darkness. If you can mount external lights on a garage or residence, that will help deter crime. A simple motion sensor light can quickly be worth the expense.
If you become a theft victim and realize that someone is looking into your vehicle, you can press the panic button and scare off the would-be thief. Please notify the police even if you scare the subject off, as they may stay in the neighborhood and look for a new target.
The criminals take note of where they can typically find unlocked vehicles and where the easy targets are. The Montgomery County Police Department will continue to be proactive in the prevention and detection of these crimes.