Residential burglaries in Palo Alto are down from last year, but auto burglaries are up, police officials said Tuesday night.

In his monthly "Meet the Chief" community briefing that drew about 30 residents to the Garden Court Hotel, Interim Palo Alto Police Chief Dennis Burns had staff members tally crime trends and answer questions.

At 63 so far this year, residential burglaries are down 24 percent compared to the same time period last year, Lt. Scott Wong said. There have been 52 commercial burglaries, down 27 percent from last year, he said.

Robberies are also down by six percent, with 15 so far this year, Wong said, adding that no homicides or rapes have been reported since Jan. 1. Auto thefts, at 32, are down 15 percent.

However, Wong said, auto burglaries, at 215, are up 29 percent. Common targets are GPS devices or laptop computers left on car seats, he said, urging residents to hide or remove those items from their cars and always to lock their vehicles.

"These thieves are walking through the neighborhoods looking into the cars, seeing what's there and what they can get and get out of there quickly. It happens at all hours, day and night," he said.

Toyotas and Hondas are the car brands most likely to be stolen, he said in answer to a resident's question.

The most recent burglary arrests were a result of residents calling police, Wong said.

"These arrests would not have been made if residents were not curious about what was going on in someone else's house or business. If you see something suspicious, call it in," he urged.

Three residents complained that police have not responded sufficiently to auto burglaries, saying victims were told to file online reports rather than having an officer come out, at least to take fingerprints.

Wong said with the loss of 13 police department positions in the past seven years, the department has been forced to prioritize what it can respond to based on potential for violence and the likelihood of solving a crime.

Burns told the residents, "It's good to have the flexibility to make an online report. But we also think there are occasions where it might be good to have an officer come out and take a look. If you can say, 'They're in my car,' we'll be out there with three cars and a police dog."

Police noted that if people call 911 within city limits, most calls -- unless they are near Highway 101 or Interstate 280 -- now are routed directly to the city police department.

Burns said he has just promoted 11 members of the 161-member police department, nine of whom have college degrees and three of whom have advanced degrees, including two law degrees.

In the recent city budget cuts, the department lost 2.5 positions -- a school resource officer, a half-time volunteer coordinator and a police desk records specialist, one of the people the public first sees when they walk into the department headquarters. The department is seeking grant funding to replace the lost school resource officer so there can be one covering each of the city's two high school areas, Burns said.

The largest section of the department is patrol, with 48 officers and 10 supervisors assigned to that area, Burns said.

Burns was named interim police chief last December following the retirement of Lynne Johnson. He said the city could name a replacement by September or October from among the 50 or 60 who have applied the job.

In a special presentation on identity theft, fraud detectives Jason Jenkins and James Reifschneider urged residents to use shredders and track their credit reports.

A recent trend is for criminals to steal Visa or MasterCard gift cards and encode the magnetic strip with stolen credit card information, then launder them by using them to purchase store-brand gift cards, such as a Target gift card.

A woman was recently caught because she used her own frequent shopper card in the same transaction with a stolen gift card, they said.

The next "Meet the Chief" meeting will be Aug. 18 at Jerusalem Baptist Church, 398 Sheridan Ave., Palo Alto.