AMBERLEY VILLAGE, Ohio — Amberley Village police is warning residents to be proactive to thwart burglaries.
“Several upscale communities like ours across the U.S. have had an increase in burglaries over the past two years,” Chief Richard Wallace wrote in a letter to residents.
“Some of the vehicles that I’ve seen in the area tend to have out-of-state license [plates] on their car,” said Officer Mark Monahan.
In addition to inspecting and upgrading home security systems and cameras, police are reminding residents they can get an Amberley Village sticker for their vehicle.
Only residents can get a sticker after showing identification at the police station.
“Should we hit any alarms to their house, and we see their vehicles parked in the driveway, we’ll have a quicker way to identify that it’s possibly this resident that’s actually there,” Monahan said.
The sticker “help[s] police and your neighbors know that you belong,” a website post stated.
Attorney Carl Lewis said he is for safety and crime prevention, but said stickers to determine who “belongs” is bad optics.
“I think the sticker should not be used at all,” he said. “It serves no purpose other than creating a hostile community.”
Utilizing stickers is not illegal, he said. However, Lewis said it could establish a bad precedent.
“If you stop me because I don’t have a sticker, therein lies the problem,” he said. “You can run that plate, no intrusion.”
To be clear, there’s no evidence that police are utilizing the sticker to declare who they are stopping.
Officer Monahan said its primarily helpful for identification purposes: “It’s always helpful to be able to identify who’s a resident, who’s not a resident.”
One resident, who didn't want to be identified, said he thought only about a third of residents had them on their car throughout the village. They’re also used for parking permits in the Amberley Green parking lot.
“We welcome all visitors to come into the village,” Monahan said.
