The Long Beach Police Department will hold multiple in-person meetings on Friday evening, and a virtual one on Saturday, in response to the recent string of commercial burglaries that have left many business owners on high alert.

The recent burglaries appear to have started when two businesses in Belmont Shore and another near the Long Beach Airport were burglarized, seemingly by the same person, on Jan. 28.

In the span of three weeks, the list of businesses being broken into has continued to grow, although it’s not clear if the same suspect has been involved in each one.

In some cases, the person breaking in doesn’t get away with much money, or any money at all, but the cost of the stolen cash registers and broken glass can cost business owners upwards of thousands of dollars to replace.

To help ease the financial burden on businesses that have been the targets of crime, the city allocated $350,000 from the Long Beach Recovery Act for the Visual Improvement Grant program, offering impacted businesses $1,500 grants to help offset the cost of repairs.

But some owners still say the recent break-ins have made them feel defeated, violated, and unsafe.

On Friday, representatives from the LBPD’s Investigations and Patrol bureau will be at the meetings to provide business owners information on what police are doing to deter future crime and arrest the suspect or suspects.

The first meeting will be held at 5 p.m. in the LBPD’s South Division substation, located at 400 West Broadway (RSVP to [email protected]). The second meeting will take place at 6 p.m. in the North Division substation, located at 4891 Atlantic Ave. (RSVP to [email protected]).

On Saturday, a virtual meeting will be held at 9 a.m. A link will be provided upon RSVP to [email protected].