"When you look at the time of day and where some of these events are going on, it makes you realize that these young people people that should be in school." said Capt. Bill Bongle, Commander Green Bay Police Department District B.
Officers looked at the areas where the crimes took place, and took closer looks at pedestrians that were out and about. They found many were teens cutting classes. As time went by, fewer youths were found on the street. So officers turned their attention to schools.
"So we began to compare notes on these two aspects, truancy and frequent offenders, and share that information with the school. Now we're getting increased communications from the schools," said Bongle.
While the truancy crackdown is still in the early stages, some initial figures show some declines in daytime crimes.
By connecting with truants and their families at home, police not only are reducing the risks of daytime burglaries, they're helping families address some causes of truancy.
"They just have problems with their teen growing up. And there's just different things going on. In those cases, we're going to try and get them hooked up with services and things like that," Bongle said.
Local 5's Terry Kovarik has the story.
