POLICE have appealed to people not to ignore burglar alarms after it emerged neighbours who heard break-ins taking place failed to do anything about it.
A community beat officer has sent e-mails to residents telling them not to be scared about wasting police time and to always report suspected crimes.
His plea comes after it was revealed that the police waste hundreds of hours responding to up to
15,000 false burglar alarms in Edinburgh every year.
However, beat officer Alan Hopper said residents could actually save police time by giving them the chance to catch burglars in the act.
He wrote to residents in the Merchiston and Bruntsfield area after hearing about two incidents where neighbours failed to call police out.
One involved a woman being woken up at 3am by a burglar alarm and "although concerned" didn't contact police to register her fears.
The second break-in, which also happened at around 3am, led to a woman being woken up by the sound of banging.
Pc Hopper said the woman "attributed the noise to the sound of the bowling club being broken into again" but, after seeing nothing untoward from her window, she returned to bed without alerting police to the noise and her concerns.
It transpired that burglars had forced open the doors to the bowling club.
He said: "Recently, there have been a couple of thefts by housebreaking that have caused concern amongst my colleagues.
"On each occasion that the crime occurred, it has transpired that local residents have heard the commission of the crime but taken no action."
He added: "Do not be afraid to contact the police.
"We would rather investigate to discover the matter is a false alarm than to be involved in a long and protracted investigation into crime."
During a 24-hour period in August, police dealt with 41 false alarms across the Capital, with 38 of these due to a system failure, two because of the weather and one because of a mistake by the keyholder.
Brian Smith, secretary of the Association of Scottish Neighbourhood Watches, said most alarms were not linked up to a police control room, so people have to call police if they hear one going off.
He said: "It's a known fact to professional burglars that they have a certain amount of time from an alarm going off and someone actually noticing it and phoning the police.
"I would urge anybody who hears a bell box or anything suspicious to call the police."
A police spokesman added: "Anyone who suspects that a crime is being committed should always report it to police immediately.
"It is important that we are informed of any suspicious activity, in order that we are given the opportunity to investigate it fully."
The full article contains 471 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
