The 3rd District of the St. Louis (Mo.) Metropolitan Police Department (SLMPD) has launched a unique poster campaign to help fight car break-ins. Taped inside bus shelters, pinned to business windows and even appearing as placards on restaurant tables, neon-colored posters proclaim, Free Beer, Free Food or Free Smokes. But when the public reads the two lines of print under the offer, they get the real message: That s what a thief sees when you leave stuff in your car.
We needed a way to stop people in their tracks and make them think, without scaring them away, says Captain Stephen Hobbs of the SLMPD s 3rd District. We couldn t appeal to the people committing the crimes, so we decided to reach out to car owners, who all too often leave things in their cars anything from loose change to CDs to cell phones to purses to make them think about what those items mean to a thief.
Says 3rd District Public Affairs Officer Don Re, Our business association, the 3rd District Police Partnership (known as 3D), saw an opportunity to help us prevent crime and make a difference. While a good deal of the work for this campaign has been donated, 3D is covering any additional costs. It s a perfect example of how the police department and the business community can work together.
The messages were created by the St. Louis-based ad agency Left Field Creative. The agency plans to license the campaign to police departments across the country for a modest rate. For more information, call Left Field Creative at 314/773-1300, or e-mail [email protected].
