Martin Police Dept. will check your home while you’re on vacation

MARTIN, Tenn. — It’s vacation season, and one local police department is working to keep your home safe while you’re away.

The Martin Police Department has been checking on homes for years, but they say many residents don’t know about it.

“We recently discovered through citizen contact that not everybody was aware of the program,” Assistant Police Chief Phillip Fuqua said.

He says if you live in the area, you should know how it works.

“You call in or stop by the police department,” Fuqua said. “There’s a very simple house check form. It has information on it like what kind of vehicles are going to be left during the duration of your absence, how many lights are going to be on, if there’s pets or no pets, so on and so forth.”

Officers will then keep an eye on your home while you’re away.

“They don’t go inside the residence, but they do walk externally around the residence and check windows and doors to make sure everything is secure and nothing is broken,” Fuqua said.

This is especially important for all the college students in the area.

“We’re fulling understanding that in our community, our college students, generally speaking, vacate for two to three weeks during the holidays, so we have extra patrol teams that go and walk the apartment complexes,” Fuqua said.

Residents can call or stop by the Martin Police Department to request the service.