Police say they want owners of Dunedin student flats to install automatic door-closer mechanisms and combination entry locks on all flat doors, but landlords say they are "less than lukewarm" about the idea.
Dunedin-Clutha police area commander Inspector Dave Campbell said thefts of items such as laptops and iPods was a serious problem in North Dunedin, and they received multiple reports of these and other electrical items being stolen from student flats in Dunedin on a weekly basis.
Police, the university and its security team, Campus Watch, had tried for years to educate Dunedin's younger students by campaigns, reminders and visits, night and day, but to no avail.
So police were turning their attention to landlords.
"Until we can convince landlords to fit automatic door-closers and combination entry locks on all flat doors, the relatively high rate of burglaries will continue."
Police had spoken to several landlords over the past year, but "they are not keen as this would involve additional expense for them - probably a few hundred dollars per flat", Insp Campbell said.
It was a problem he believed was likely to take years to address.
Few other residents lived in the problem areas, and residents often left their doors open or unlocked.
People could enter unchallenged at almost any time, and personal items were even easier pickings during a party at a flat.
One student research study showed that while one- and two-bedroom flats were almost always kept locked, flats with four or more bedrooms were invariably left unlocked.
"It seems they leave the doors unlocked in case their flatmates don't have their keys with them. "Some flats have been burgled two or three times within a couple of years. On many occasions, we have advised the new tenants of this, as they would be unaware. Despite all that, little changes."
The officer in charge of the Dunedin police intelligence unit, Sergeant Tony Ritchie, said the area was an easy target for criminals and opportunists.
In one recent case, five high school-aged youths were caught in the Octagon selling laptops and iPods, they had stolen from a series of student flats earlier that day.
They told police they "just walked in" to the flats.
On Monday, laptops were reported stolen from upstairs rooms in a Castle St flat while tenants ate downstairs.
Several other laptops were reported stolen from a Dundas St flat last week.
It was likely the only time thefts were reported to police was when the owner claimed insurance, and the actual number of thefts was a great deal higher, Sgt Ritchie said.
Police had approached insurance companies about the problem, but they had not seemed concerned as the claim would be on each person's individual insurance, or an add-on to parents' insurance, he said.
When contacted, Otago Property Investors' Association president Grant Roydhouse said he was unaware the police wanted to go in that direction.
When he raised the issue at a meeting of the association this week it met with a "less than lukewarm" response, with concerns that the idea was a bit "nanny state", and that students needed to take responsibility for themselves or their own property.
"The words 'individual responsibility' were mentioned, and I think that's a good thing to encourage."
He was not comfortable either with the idea that student accommodation landlords should be compelled to put locks on entrances.
Landlords were also concerned about the cost, particularly if all entrances and exits in a building were required to have an automatic door closer and a combination lock.
Landlords were open to a presentation from police on the issue, he said.
