"And sometimes we see a spike in our shoplifts and stuff like that. And we're geared up for it," said Sgt. Steve Yarberry with the Wichita Police Department.
While many of us were busy counting everything we should be thankful for and then counting our purchases, police officers were working over-time. The holiday weekend is often a busy one for Wichita officers.
They say it started getting busy for them Thursday evening and stayed that way throughout much of the weekend. We noticed the trend right here in the newsroom as the emergency scanners seemed to be going off almost non-stop.
Black Friday crowds may be responsible for some of the problems. Over the Thanksgiving holiday officers say shoplifting often goes up and they work with local stores to prepare for the mini-crime wave long before it begins. But that's not all they have to deal with.
During almost every holiday weekend there are also a lot of what officers call domestic disturbances. Those are things like family fights, people getting drunk and making a scene, etc.
"When people are off work your crime's going to increase a little bit and we're used to that. We know that," said Yarberry.
Police aren't alone. According to many fire departments, the Thanksgiving holiday also often sees an increase in fire calls, often due to kitchen fires. Here at Eyewitness News at least six metro area fires have been big enough to make our newscasts since Thursday.
