Canton Geneva has seen burglaries double so far this year in comparison with the same period in 2008, police spokesman, Eric Grandjean, told Swisster on Wednesday. Although officials will not release exact figures until April, news of this staggering increase comes on top of a national trend which has been rising steadily over the past two decades.

Grandjean blames the new wave on criminals, including Roma, from over the border as well as “specialist gangs from Georgia” who began arriving in 2007. Clive Martin, owner of Security Alarms, which has been doing business in Switzerland for 17 years, told Swisster: “I’m not saying that all the burglars are foreigners, many are Swiss. But we do have an economic depression which means an increase in crime.”

Consequently business for Security Alarms has risen accordingly. “It’s more than doubled if we compare it to middle of December,” he said. “There have been a lot more burglaries and that has exacerbated the situation.”

Better media coverage of the issue has helped raise awareness he said. “When I first arrived in Switzerland, the press were reluctant to talk about it because of Switzerland’s image as a safe place. As far as the Swiss are concerned the rise in burglaries has come as a colossal shock,” he added.

Police say they made “over 100 arrests last year” and Geneva is “the only canton in Switzerland” where DNA specimens are collected at the scene of every break-in. Grandjean also said geographical concentrations of house-breaking were “analysed every day” and police presence adjusted accordingly.

Officials are also preparing an awareness campaign – a flyer to be sent to every cantonal household over the coming weeks.

Martin says reasons for the rising crime wave lie in the country’s over-protected past, relaxed European regulations governing the free movement of people and lax domestic security measures. “Houses in Switzerland are easy to break into and it generally takes between four and five minutes to be successful. It’s a gilded cage. If you’re coming from Georgia, then a house in the countryside here is like a palace.”

However, while criminals in other countries will efficiently empty a property of its contents, here in Switzerland, they’re more concerned with quick wins.

“They’re looking for two things: cash and gold jewellery,” said Martin. “They’re not interested in TVs and large items because there’s no market here and they're hard to transport over the border.”

Failure to find these two items in sufficient quantities often leads to anger and revenge says Martin. “If they don’t find much, then it’s not the value of the stolen goods, it’s the sometimes thousands of francs worth in damages. This is a major problem for insurance companies.”

Unsurprisingly Martin strongly feels the best way to combat burglaries is to take security measures and not rely on official intervention. “Police are undermanned and residential burglaries are one of the lowest priorities they have . . . unless there has been an aggression – then they will arrive very quickly.”

He also questions the protection value of private surveillance firms. “It’s very unlikely that they’re going to catch the burglar red-handed but they [the firms] are very useful if you leave your house for several months a year because they will secure the premises after a break-in.”

Martin’s company offers protection devices which “set off an alarm when the burglar is still outside. Nine-and-a-half times out of 10, this prevents them from getting in at all.”

The company has installed around 9,000 systems in Switzerland Martin said.

Other devices and deterrents include various alarms, doors (and frames) made from metal or hardwood, surveillance cameras, infra-red motion detectors, deadbolt reinforcements and locks, special hinge screws (that prevent doors from being pushed in after removal of hinge pins) and more.

Security advice (in French) from Geneva police can be found here.