June 21, 2004 – Police are investigating a rash of break-ins in Christiansted recently. "I know of 12 burglaries of Christiansted businesses in the middle of the night in the last three weeks," Julia Renfro, president of the Christiansted Restaurant and Retail Association, said.
On Monday afternoon Renfro met with officers from Zone C, which has jurisdiction over Christiansted town, to express business community concerns. The association has more than 80 members.
"It was a good meeting," Renfro said, stating that police told her there actually have been 22 burglaries of downtown establishments in the last month. Fifteen locations, including restaurants, law offices and retail stores have been burglarized, she said, some of them "hit more than once."
Renfro said once information was gathered from affected businesses, "a definite pattern was established."
Police Chief Novelle Frances said on Monday that police have stepped up preventive measures in Christiansted. "Additional bicycle patrols, overtime for foot patrol officers and assigning a detective to work along with officers to analyze the patterns of crimes" are among the steps that have been taken, he said.
Renfro said she remains confident about police protection. "The police have a plan of action to stop and arrest the person responsible," she said. Members of the Restaurant and Retail Association "are pleased with the cooperation from the police and confident police are making this a priority," she said.
She also expressed hope that evidence from security cameras can be used to help in the apprehension of suspects. "Hopefully the security cameras caught some of these criminals in the act," she said.
According to Renfro the camera lenses were recently cleaned. In the last two weeks the St. Croix cameras have been 95 percent functional she said. However, Francis doesn't think so. "The cameras are about 60 percent operational," he said on Monday.
Forty-eight security cameras were installed on St. Croix in early 2003, made possible by a grant initiated by the Restaurant and Retail Association.
Another 18 cameras were installed on St. Thomas, and six were set up on St. John.
The cameras are bulletproof, have infrared capability and can be taken down in the event of a hurricane.

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