WICHITA FALLS (KFDX/KJTL)—It’s the happiest time of the year, but for law enforcement it also proves to be the busiest.

“It can be a sad time when you see what people will actually do with kids Christmas gifts that are supposed to be for kids and they are stolen and sold for the wrong reasons,” Sergeant Charlie Eipper said.

WFPD’s Sergeant Charlie Eipper says burglaries and thefts are always common this time of year, holiday shopping is in full swing, and it gets dark outside earlier, giving thieves the perfect time to spring into action.

“We actually take the initiative to put more officers out there in the evenings around our shopping areas here in town, our motorcycle guys watch a lot of that the parking lots and so forth because people are going in shopping and they might come drop stuff in their car and go to another store,” Eipper said.

Parking lots are a hot spot, but another popular place for crimes to happen? Your residence. If you have a Ring doorbell camera, police say it can come in handy in many different ways.”

“We have this program SAFECAM that is like neighborhood watch on steroids and now you have cameras and you’ve got a database that you can go to our website wfpdnow.com and go to the link SAFECAM and you can sign up.” Eipper said. “So if there’s a crime that occurs in your area or in front of your house or at your house we can go through and find out who in the area has a camera and we can call an ask you to check your footage.”

It doesn’t give the police any secret access to your home just an extra layer of protection among other things.

“If you’re gonna be in the dark try to find lighted places, most of our parking lots are pretty well lit so just try to find those park next to them park under the lights.”

To sign up for SAFECAM, click here.