Staying safe from crime
Before getting into this article let me first give you a brief
on who I am. I am a former Police Officer of over 14 years. I am
also the author of the book Crime Awareness 101. Throughout my
career as a police officer I discovered that for the most part
criminal activity is not all that unique. I saw the same crimes
happen over and over again; and, I saw the victims of these
crimes make the same mistakes over and over again. Criminals
look for the same opportunities as they always have, and
victimize people the same way. Why do they constantly get away
with it? Well because we allow them too. How do we do that? We
don't learn anything about criminal activity, until it is too
late. We tend to believe the same common misconception.
It won't happen to me
This type of thinking is exactly what the criminal wants you to
think. Why; because this type of thinking keeps you off guard.
It is kind of like a salesman. Who is a salesmen's best friend?
It is an uneducated consumer. So, who is a criminal's best
friend? It is an uneducated victim. To keep yourself safe from
crime (or at least lesson your odds) you need to learn about
crime. What do you need to learn?
Well for starters you should know that most criminals look for
easy opportunities. They want to get in and out as fast as they
can or, take their victim somewhere isolated or hidden and do
whatever they have planned. Understanding this concept is a key
point to keeping you safe. If the criminal wants an easy target,
then your objective is to be a hard target. The harder the
target you are the more likely the criminal will move on to
someone else more vulnerable. You need to understand that you
will not stop criminal activity know one can. However, you can
make yourself a hard enough target that they will move on.
How do you make yourself a hard target? Well one of the key
steps is to follow as many practical preventative measures as
you can. The more things you do to prevent crime the safer you
will become. What are practical preventative measures? They
preventative measures that most people can do without a major
disruption in their lifestyle or major expense. Below is a short
list.
- Lock your car doors.
- Don't leave items of
value in your car that can be easily seen.
- Get deadbolt
locks for your house, and use them. (See my article "Tips for keeping you home invasion
free"
) Be aware of what's going on
around you. Shred or burn any financial statements you
would normally throw away. Itemize the property in your
home. (See my article "The importance of documenting your
property") Park in well lit
areas. Do not flash a lot of money or expensive
jewelry. Do not leave outgoing bills in your
unlocked mailbox for the postman to pick up. Try
not to wear clothing that is too restrictive.
This is just a short list taken from various crimes; in my book
I list over 150 preventative and safety tips, from
various crimes and criminal activity. Now I know what you
are saying "That's just a bunch of common sense things that
don't mean anything." That statement couldn't be further
from the truth. These preventative tips weren't just
dreamed up because someone had nothing to do. Tips like
these are a result of thousands of crimes that have been
committed and what could have been done to prevent them.
Disregarding tips like these is a big step in the direction of
becoming a criminal's best friend "the uneducated
victim."
Another thing you can do is learn about criminal behavior.
They are studying you, so why don't you study them.
Understanding how criminals think and what they look for is an
excellent way that you can avoid them. I wrote an article
titled "Six Common Criminal Types and How to
avoid them " which, is a short but
interesting look at the different types of criminals and what
they look for. Of course my book covers this in more detail
but the article is a good start.
Finally there is an easy little trick that very few people know
about or do. I call it "Mental Role Playing. " What is
mental role playing? It is imagining an event and playing out in
your mind how you would handle it. For example say you are
concerned about what you would do if someone entered your
home. Well play that scenario out in your mind. Think
about what this person looks like, how many there are, what time
of day or night it is, who is home with you, make it as detailed
as possible. Then think through, what you would do, how
would you handle it. In my book I cover mental role playing
more in depth. However this should give you a good idea of
what I am talking about.
Of course there are other things you can do. However to
cover all that would be much longer than an article it would be
more like a book. And, that is exactly what I have
written. You can check it out, along with all my articles
at www.crimeawareness101.com