In conjunction with National Crime Victims’ Rights Week April 7-13, throughout this month The Record is reporting on crime trends in local communities.Warrenton police officers responded to an average of almost six reported thefts per week in 2018, a total of nearly 300. Although that number is up from the two years prior, it was still a moderately good year, according to local crime data collected by the Missouri State Highway Patrol.As with other communities, many thefts are connected to drug usage, said Warrenton Police Lt. Branden Weber. The police department is taking proactive measures to address both those concerns, through community engagement and active enforcement.“We have become a more proactive department. It’s a change in philosophy and mindset of the department, to get the community involved, do community policing,” Weber said. “When the community is giving us some assistance by reporting things, that helps us out a whole lot.”As the center of population and retail business in Warren County, Warrenton experiences sometimes more than 400 thefts per year, according to uniform crime reporting (UCR) data collected by the highway patrol.Many of those reports involve stealing from stores, Weber said. He added that Warrenton stores and other locations along Interstate 70 are also victimized by people traveling up and down the interstate to use stolen credit cards at big chain stores.“If you are looking to commit those types of crimes, you’re going to go to an area that’s populated and … where your major businesses are.”Outside the retail setting, Weber said theft is often a crime of opportunity, where a locked car door can make the difference between becoming a victim or not. Sometimes individuals or groups commit a string of car break-ins. To catch them, police officers rely on engagement with the community.“If (residents) see somebody in the community walking around and it’s suspicious, it’s late at night and they’re kind of in and out of dark areas, behind houses, behind businesses — if we get calls, we can check it out. That’s a lot of times who’s committing those crimes,” Weber said.Community outreach has been an increasing focus for Warrenton police. The department hosted an open gym night with local youth in February, and has plans for future events. Officers offer workshops on crime prevention and fraud detection to local businesses and community groups upon request. Weber said it’s a priority to have more contact with the community other than just responding to calls.Officers also are actively looking for opportunities to combat the spread of drugs in the area. Drugs are an expensive habit, forcing users to steal to pay for their addiction, Weber commented.Police have ramped up their efforts to locate drugs during traffic stops, Weber said, leading to a spike in drug-related arrests in 2018. UCR data shows that arrests for drug possession as the primary offense tripled last year, reaching 125, compared to 40 in 2017.Reducing the spread of drugs in the community is another area where Weber said community engagement is extremely important. The biggest impact comes from early intervention and prevention among young people, and from establishing a positive influence early in their lives, he added.“Between the ages of 10 to 18, if you can have a significant impact in someone’s life, that’s when you’re going to have it. And the earlier, the better.”Overall, UCR data doesn’t show any drastic changes to crime trends over the last few years that aren’t accounted for by yearly fluctuation or changes to how certain crimes are reported, Weber said. Like other locales, Warrenton police anticipate that a growing population will come with more calls to police. That’s something Weber said the department is prepared to address.Warrenton Police patch