Providence Patrolman Ludwig Castro places an informational flyer on a car while on patrol on Pembroke Avenue. This unlocked car had what appeared to be a laptop computer in a case in plain sight.

The Providence Journal / Bob Thayer

PROVIDENCE — A quiet crime wave swept through the parking garage at the Providence Place mall in 2008. In the first nine months of the year, 77 motor vehicles were broken into and items stolen.

But the city police and mall security went to work. Patrols were increased, detectives set up covert surveillance, and mall personnel distributed hundreds of flyers to shoppers to warn them to stow their GPS units and other valuables in their vehicles out of the sight of thieves.

Deputy Police Chief Paul J. Kennedy said that during the first nine months of 2009, through Sept. 22, there were only 15 larcenies from vehicles in the garage, a decrease of 81 percent.

“That’s a huge number,” he said.

A thought occurred to Police Chief Dean M. Esserman. If the flyers were part of a successful program of crime prevention at the mall, why not replicate that effort in the city’s neighborhoods. He suggested the idea to his district lieutenants.

“That was the big part, people putting things away” after having been reminded, Lt. Michael Figuereido, District 1 commander, said of the reduction in crime at the mall.

And Esserman’s suggestion is now under way in District 7, Elmhurst and the North End, where Lt. Daniel E. Gannon has his officers leaving flyers tucked under the windshield wipers of parked cars that are unlocked or have items tempting to a thief left in plain sight on the floor or seats.

The rectangular flyer is colored orange, like a city parking ticket, so it gets attention and makes a vehicle owner less likely to absent-mindedly crumple it up without reading it. Entitled “Providence Police Security Tip,” it has an array of boxes for an officer to check, such as packages left in plain sight or a window rolled down, and it carries a reminder to secure items in the trunk.

Asked if a flyer actually might be a red flag to a thief, the police said its resemblance to a parking ticket makes that unlikely.

In only 20 minutes on a recent day, two patrolmen found four cars parked on Oakland and Pembroke avenues with visible items inside that might interest a thief. In one car, for example, there was a pair of boots, an iPod and a cloth bag with a tantalizing bulge. In another, a cloth bag appeared to contain the outline of a laptop computer.

“We’re being a lot more aggressive …” in prevention, Esserman said.

Through Oct. 23, or about the first 9 ½ months of 2009, preliminary figures released by the police show that there have been 2,024 larcenies from vehicles, compared with 2,202 for the same period of time in 2008, a decrease of 8.1 percent.

In the other vehicle-related category of major crime, auto theft, the police are looking even better.

Through Oct. 23, according to preliminary figures, 865 cars and trucks were swiped in Providence, compared with 1,210 for the same period in 2008, a decline of 28.5 percent.

Kennedy attributes the reduction in auto theft to “aggressive patrol techniques” in which officers challenge suspicious people on the street and stop a lot of cars. That deters thieves, he said, because they are afraid that they might get caught.

Security features in new cars may have made a difference, too, Esserman has speculated. They include the transponder immobilizer system, which prevents a car from being started without an ignition key containing an encoded electronic chip.

As for stealing from a vehicle, the police say that it only takes a few minutes for a criminal to break in and get away with some loot. They hit a window with a metal tool called a punch or just the sharp ceramic shards of a broken spark plug, according to the police, and the glass dissolves into bits.

Electronics are especially attractive, such as GPS units that are attached to windshields and easily removed, according to the police. Even an empty GPS holder left suction-cupped to a windshield is enough to prompt a thief to break in and rummage around.

Several weeks ago, Gannon began the distribution of flyers in the vicinity of Providence College, and he has visited the campus with a safety message to urge students to mind their belongings in their dormitory rooms, off-campus housing, vehicles and when they are on the street. He suggested, for example, that if someone hosts a house party, have the guests leave their valuables in one room where they can be secured.

A lot of the freshmen are from suburbia and “they are more apt not to be aware of their surroundings, to trust people. … Somebody needs to tell them that you are in an inner-city environment” and vulnerable to crime, he said

There was a recent rash of larcenies from autos in District 1, which includes downtown and the Jewelry District. The police reported 19 larcenies during the week of Oct. 11, with 4 alone from a dimly-lit parking lot beneath a highway ramp at Chestnut Street. Plainclothes officers staked out the lot, but to no avail.

“They were taking everything,” not just electronics, the lieutenant said of those four. In one case, a man returned to his car and found it up on concrete blocks, with four tires and rims missing.

gsmith@projo.com