The following are excerpts from Michael Jantz’s Blog site: (our Public School Trustee)
LOCKS
There is no substitute for the elimination of temptation. - keep doors locked and garage windows covered; keep hidden any valuables in your vehicle. Every night make sure all toys, bikes, or any items are hidden in the garage and doors locked or taken indoors . A solid lock on the garage is a great deterrent and prevents even the hardest bodycheck. It sounds simple but just put your things away. Sadly, even petty cash in the coffee cup can be a delicious temptation for someone hitting hard times.
Neighbourhood contact list!
Even if your neighbours are right across the road or alley, can you text them? Do you know their names? If their front window or garage was left open could you call?
In each place I’ve lived, I printed off a slip with our names and phone numbers, introduced ourselves, and offered some cookies to our neighbours as a friendly gesture to open a line of communication. You might feel a bit weird, but I can tell you first hand the neighbours all enjoyed meeting someone else, having contact and they were almost all willing to be an emergency contact or pet sitter! That contact list has helped us on a number of occasions, including a basement flooding issue. Again, there is no substitute for knowing your neighbours and helping to keep an eye out for one another.
In each place I’ve lived, I printed off a slip with our names and phone numbers, introduced ourselves, and offered some cookies to our neighbours as a friendly gesture to open a line of communication. You might feel a bit weird, but I can tell you first hand the neighbours all enjoyed meeting someone else, having contact and they were almost all willing to be an emergency contact or pet sitter! That contact list has helped us on a number of occasions, including a basement flooding issue. Again, there is no substitute for knowing your neighbours and helping to keep an eye out for one another.
Let there be light: the beauty of motion sensor lights.
There are all kinds of motion sensor lights on the market now and many ways to utilize them. Light is a great deterrent.
Report everything and take the time to alert your neighbours. Edmonton Police Service logs all calls and tracks the data to determine where more attention may be needed. If recurring events are happening in a hot spot they will patrol that area more often.
In addition to police presence, forming a dog walking group or a neighbourhood watch task force can be an easy way to discourage negative activity in your area and lets those living on your street know that there are people keeping an eye out regularly. A more active community where people are regularly visible can be a good deterrent.
Report everything and take the time to alert your neighbours. Edmonton Police Service logs all calls and tracks the data to determine where more attention may be needed. If recurring events are happening in a hot spot they will patrol that area more often.
In addition to police presence, forming a dog walking group or a neighbourhood watch task force can be an easy way to discourage negative activity in your area and lets those living on your street know that there are people keeping an eye out regularly. A more active community where people are regularly visible can be a good deterrent.
