Comparison of crime rates at family fun centers

Deanie Wimmer reporting This weekend many parents will plan to take their kids to family fun spots. They'll weigh activities and costs, but how often does safety factor into those plans?

Maybe it should, after what we uncovered for this Staying Safe report.

They may show the same movies, charge the same for treats, but family fun centers stack up very differently when it comes to crime rates. We compared police reports of places spread throughout the Salt Lake Valley, to help you and your family Stay Safe.

Bare wires are all that's left of Erin Pickrell's car audio and video system. "They knew exactly what they were doing," she said. "They came in, they ripped them out."

Someone trashed her car when she took her kids to a matinee. "I had cords everywhere. They took phone chargers," she told us.

But, she says, more upsetting than the crime was the theater management's response. "He goes, 'Didn't you read the sign?'" she said. "'We're not liable.'"

"I said, 'I just thought you would want to know it happened. And he said, 'It happens a lot actually, but we're not responsible.' My blood was boiling," Erin said.

So she called us, saying if everyone -- including the theater -- says it happens all the time, we should look into whether there's a safety problem. So we did. We compared last year's police reports at popular fun spots across the valley.

Century Theaters, along with Jordan Commons, Hollywood Connection, Fat Cats, Gateway, Kearns Skating Oval, Gallivan Center, Thanksgiving Point, Bountiful Rec Center, Murray Rec Center and Classic Skating. The reports for 2007 show big differences.

Jordan Commons in Sandy, with big theaters, had 14 vehicle burglaries and 12 vehicle thefts. Hollywood Connection in West Valley had 21 burglaries and eight thefts. Century 16, where Erin Pickerell was, had 24 burglaries and a whopping 34 cars stolen. Compare that to Gateway Plaza, with underground parking, where four cars were stolen.

Gateway had high numbers in other crimes; we noticed 23 assaults. But there were almost double that at nearby Gallivan Center.

In fairness, many of the smaller locations had low numbers of crimes, but certain things stood out.

At the Kearns skating oval and Bountiful Rec Center almost every other crime on the report was a theft, often from locker rooms. Almost every other response for Fat Cats was for fights. In fact, just a few weeks ago, we interviewed a couple involved in a serious fight. It started over the children's play slides.

The director for family fun at Fat Cats watched surveillance tape over and over to learn from that incident. Starting next month, Fat Cats will have uniformed, off-duty sheriff's deputies in the establishment, in addition to the state-of-the-art cameras.

Company spokesperson, Amy Hutchins, said, "Safety is one of our values, and it's very important to us. At the end of the day we realize if we don't have a safe environment for families, we shouldn't be in business."

Police applaud businesses with proactive measures to keep customers safe.

Victor Quezada of the Sandy Police Department said, "I think most of the credit goes to the business themselves or the management working with the police department hand in hand."

He says those partnerships make a difference. And it will make a difference in the future to one mom and where she takes her family and business. "I'll look for security more than I have. I never thought I had to," she said.

We gave Century 16 a chance to comment and were sent to corporate, which didn't call us back.

To Stay Safe wherever you take your family, police say use common sense.

Safety Tips

• Park in well-lit areas
• Hide valuables out of sight in your car
• Immediately notify management of problems
• If you don't feel right about something, don't take the risk.

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