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Building a Crime
Free Environment
Take Stock and Take Action |
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The Neighbourhood Crime |
The Problems We Have Created |
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Late last year,
my son’s bicycle was stolen from our porch.
A few days later, our next-door neighbour's bicycle was also stolen. |
Being
complacent: We tend to think that all is well as long as we do not
hear anything unpleasant happening in our immediate neighbourhood.
Make an effort to talk to your neighbours and you may discover that your
neighbourhood is not as safe as you have thought. |
Neither
of us made police reports thinking that these were just petty thefts and
we did not take any safety measures.
Soon, we began to hear more complaints on thefts from our
neighbours.
Then the crooks started working in a group. They came back to the home of my
next-door neighbour and stole two bicycles on the same night. |
Inaction:
Not making an effort to make a police report which would have enabled them
to keep tabs on the rising crime rate in the area. |
As no one in the
neighbourhood made any efforts to apprehend this issue and take
preventive measures, the crooks became braver. On May 2, 2005 at about 4.00am, two of them tried to break into the
home of a neighbour down my street.
There were no man in the house then. Only an old lady, her
daughter-in-law and four young grandchildren.
Think about it? What could have happened to this family if one of
them had not been woken up by the sound of the door being forced opened?
The old lady was too
shocked to even shout for help.
The thieves on seeing the hall lighted up, quickly made their
get-away on a motorbike using the road adjacent to the house they tried to
break in.
Do you want to wait for something like that to happen to your family
before taking action? |
Not concern enough: Do not wait till something bad happen to you, your family
members or your neighbours before doing something to prevent crimes. |
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What You Can
Do |
Form a
neighbourhood network and organise regular
meetings to report crimes occurring in the neighbourhood. Get the
Resident Association (RA) involved so that they can make a collective report to
the police station for their further action. With such a report, the
police will be on the alert and will conduct patrols in the area.
The RA will also be able to make arrangement for
someone from the police department to give a talk on how to reduce crime
in the neighbourhood.
Look out for
strangers in the neighbourhood. If you are wary about someone you
have seen
loitering around your area, gather a few of your neighbours and approach
the person to make some enquiries. If he has bad intentions, he will
most likely go away on being questioned. A crook will not likely
target areas where he knows he has been spotted. |
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Action To
Take
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Inform your neighbours to standby the
following item in their homes:
- Whistle
- Torch Light
- Camera
- Your neighbours' telephone numbers
Victims of break ins or neighbours
who have observed one occurring should blow their whistles.
Whoever in
the vicinity on hearing the whistle should also blow their own before
turning on the lights at their porch.
They can also shine their torchlights up and down the street. This is to alert as many people
in the neighbourhood as possible of a crime being committed so that
they can be on a look out for any suspicious looking strangers trying to make a
get-away. Take a photograph of them if you are able to.
After making a police report, the victim and neighbours who have spotted
anything suspicious, should inform a RA representative to make a record of the occurrence and
pass over any photos taken.
Such information can be placed on a notice board in the neighbourhood
park.
The sound of whistles blowing the night
before will also alert others to check out the notice board for information
on the latest robbery committed.
The objectives of this exercise is to:
- Keep neighbours informed of crime that
have occurred so that preventive measures can be made based on the
facts provided.
- Creating a commotion with the whistles
and torch lights
will frighten away any would be thieves.
- Posting pictures of the crooks on the
notice board may help in napping the crooks or scare them off from
making a come back.
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