48 Things You Can Do To
Help Prevent Crime Where You Live and Work

Around the Home | When You're Away from Home | Your Car
Teenagers | General Tips | At the Office

Around the Home

1. Install good secure locks on doors and windows and use them. Lock the door even if you leave the house for only a short time.
2. Use a dead bolt to replace key-in-the-knob locks.
3. Never open the door to a stranger. Always ask for photo identification to be slid under the door.
4. Do not leave extra keys in the mailbox, under doormats, or anywhere else outside your house. Leave extra keys with a trusted neighbor.
5. Install good exterior lighting. Burglars are less likely to sneak around where they can be easily spotted.
6. Keep shrubs and landscaping trimmed below window height to avoid creating hiding spots.
7. Trim back branches that can be climbed on to reach windows.
8. Secure sliding glass doors and windows with a broom stick or metal Charley Bar.
9. Don't leave tools exposed in an unlocked garage. A burglar can steal them or use them to enter your home.
10. Be sure that door hinges are not removable from the outside.
11. Store ladders inside.
12. Keep valuables in a safe deposit box.
13. Don't give strangers information over the phone. Report annoying calls or repeated wrong numbers to the police and telephone company.
14. Report broken street lights.
15. Record your credit card numbers and serial numbers of valuable documents and store them in a safe place or in a safe deposit box.
16. Keep emergency phone numbers by the phone.
17. If you're in the backyard or basement, lock your front door.
18. Keep garage doors closed and locked.
19. Single women or women living alone should list only their last name and first initial on mail boxes or in the telephone directory. Never use Ms. or Miss.
20. Call your local law enforcement agency and ask for a home security survey. This is a free service that will tell you exactly how secure your home is against the possibility from a break in.
21. Mark your property with an Operation ID number. Operation ID is a free service provided by your local law enforcement agency through which you permanently mark or engrave all of your valuables for identification. Contact your local law enforcement authorities for more information or call this TOLL FREE number: (800) 342-4202.
22. If you come home to find that your house has been burglarized, don't touch anything! Go to a neighbors home and call 911

When You're Away From Home

23. Notify your neighbors that your not home. Ask them to keep an eye on the house and make sure there are no unwanted people wandering around your house.
24. Stop newspaper delivery, or have a neighbor pick it up. Same thing goes for mail. If you'll be away, accumulated newspapers and a stuffed mailbox is a red flag that screams, "I'm not home!"
25. If away for an extended period during the warmer months, arrange to have your lawn mowed. During the winter months, arrange with a neighbor to have your walk shoveled. Offer to do the same for when he or she is away.
26. Some police departments offer a "Dark House" service. Tell them you'll be away, and they'll monitor your house. Also be sure to provide them with an emergency telephone number where you can be reached.

Your Car

27. Lock your car when your away from it. Never leave your keys in the ignition even if you'll only be gone for a minute.
28. Don't leave packages on the seats or where they're visible. Put valuables out of sight or lock them in the trunk.
29. Use your Operation ID number for your car and its accessories as well as for valuables in your home.
30. Never pick up hitch hikers.
31. When you have your car serviced or parked by a valet, leave only your ignition key with the car. Your house keys should be kept separate and taken with you.
32. If you're followed or harassed while driving your car, drive to the police station. If there is no convenient station available, drive to a shopping center or gas station that is well lit and call the police from there.

Teenagers

33. Always lock up your bicycle.
34. Engrave your bicycle with an Operation ID
35. Don't hitchhike.
36. Use only the lock provided by your school for securing your locker.
37. Drinking and driving is a crime and is just plain reckless. Don't drink and drive. Don't accept rides from friends who have been drinking, as well.

General Tips

38. Set up a buddy system or Neighborhood Watch in your community.
39. Avoid walking on dark streets - especially if you know the area has a high crime rate or bad reputation.
40. Direct deposit of your government checks to the bank of your choice is a free service that saves you trips to the bank and having to carry unnecessary cash on your person.
41. Carry your purse close to the body with a firm grasp, not dangling where it can be easily snatched.
42. Large sums of money should be carried in a special secure undergarment or money belt.
43. Don't flash large amounts of cash. It's an open invitation to a thief.
44. Report to police if you see someone trying to pry open a car window.
45. Tell your children not to accept rides or candy from strangers.

At The Office

46. When leaving, be sure all important files are secured and your cabinets are locked.
47. Keep a minimum amount of petty cash on hand.
48. Get an Operation ID number for things at the office, label anything that's valuable that could easily be stolen.