“I doubt there is any law requiring them to give you notice; even if they did, I'm not sure what good it would do.”
After the break-in I went to a hardware store and purchased supplies to prevent my window from being raised from the outside (although, it also now requires much more work to open from inside as well). I would have done this before a break-in had I known of the high number and manner of previous, recent break-ins.
“Not sure how you reach this conclusion (i.e., "The tenants are sitting ducks to similar types of break-ins due to not knowing they are occurring.").”
Please see above statement. Also, I believe the burglars keep coming back because they have found a break-in method that works on the unsuspecting tenants. Each time the break-in works the same way because the tenant doesn’t know to prepare. A simple note on all of our doors could have given us a chance to react proactively and the burglars wouldn’t have found it so easy to keep coming back.
“You're free to sue the landlord if you like, but I doubt a court would require it to provide a security force. You don't say whether there's a lighting issue or the like.”
The burglaries are happening in the daytime through a bedroom or kitchen window. The windows all have a part of the latch attached to the glass and the burglars simply break the glass so that part of the latch falls out. Then they raise the window and climb inside. I’ve read that landlords can be assigned some liability when they have knowledge about a high amount of recurrent similar criminal activity that their tenants don’t have and fail to do anything about it. Unfortunately, all of the cases I’ve found on the Internet have involved more than just a burglary, but an assault as well. Maybe a negligent security case is possible due to the landlord’s knowledge that the window latch was not preventing the unusually high number of break-ins (the landlord replaces the windows after the break-ins).
“It's best to always check into the crime stats before you move into a given neighborhood.”
The two police departments that cover the complex didn’t want to readily reveal the criminal stats to me until I indicated that I was a recent victim within that apartment complex with a case number. I’m still waiting for the second police department to supply their numbers, but as I mentioned, the smaller police department listed 20 burglaries for the front portion of the apartment complex which is in their jurisdiction.
Thanks for reading and the advice.