After noticing an increase in the number of doors damaged in break-ins, police and the City of Vancouver teamed up for a new crime prevention initiative.
The result is a new city bylaw making it mandatory to add a metal plate to the back side of door frames for new construction and renovations to all residential dwellings.
The change was initiated by Const. Ryan Hooper last year. While investigating residential break-ins he noticed that more door frames were splitting open during forced entries.
“We were seeing some commonalities of the door frame splitting open upon forced entries and initiated a project to find a solution,” Hooper said in a press release.
The department partnered with the city’s building inspectors and code engineers to try and come up with a solution that was both cost-effective and easy to implement. The metal plates cost about $5 each, said department spokesman Sgt. Jason Robillard.
“This is a very simple change that will make a big difference,” he said. “Last year, forced entry break-and-enters accounted for 38 per cent of all break-and-enters in the city.”
Last November, city council approved amending the building code to make the metal plates mandatory in door frames for all new builds and renovations.
@JessicaEKerr
