"The media played our thefts up a lot of times . . . but we have really, really sliced our numbers," said Ralph Calaberdino, Franklin Mills' director of security. "I'll match statistics with any of the other malls around."
Whalen said the two other most frequently reported crimes outside the mall have also dropped: Theft from vehicles is down 24 percent over two years, and robbery is down 35 percent over the same period, he said. He did not provide actual numbers of crimes attempted or committed.
Officials attribute the improved security to a recently completed project that boosted lighting, video surveillance and police presence at Franklin
Mills.
Western Development Co., the mall's Washington, D.C.-based owner, this month finished rewiring the lights at Franklin Mills' six entrances. New metal halide lights at each of the color-coded, canopied entrances tripled the light output, from 20 to 60 foot-candles. An additional 40-foot-high light pole was also installed at each entrance.
"It's much brighter," acknowledged Rosemary Montagno, president of the Franklin Mills Advisory Council, which represents eight community groups near the mall. Montagno says it was the advisory council that first asked mall management to improve lighting in the parking lot - in the summer of 1992.
"We knew it would take a while to do it," she said. "When you have to deal with the utilities and all the rest of it, it's a big job."
Peter Burgum, Franklin Mills' general manager, estimated the new lights added an extra $1,000 to $1,500 to the mall's monthly electricity tab - a relatively small increase, he said, compared to the cost of lighting the entire mall, inside and out.
The lights improve the exposure for closed-circuit security cameras, which now cover about 80 percent of the mall area.
