Improving communications within your neighbouring businesses can lead to more arrests.
An open line of communication for businesses in your area can help improve protection against theft, fraud and repeat targeting. Building a connection with other local businesses can help to also prevent organized crime and its role in large-scale theft, vandalism and drug activity. Organized crime is advanced and often targets businesses without a network of support or advanced security. By building your network, you can share information and help to build a better response or case if one of the businesses is targeted locally.
Multiplier Effect in Preventing and Solving crime.
Many times, perpetrators who target high value assets stored outside often have outstanding warrants for additional offences. By working together with local police, your business can help to prevent or solve a multitude of crimes within the community. Law enforcement intervention immediately helps responding officers to take more effective actions against the perpetrators.
Crime Prevention is a Partnership.
Building relationships with your local law enforcement officers can help them to navigate your property efficiently if they’re dispatched to an event on site. Invite local officers to tour your property and familiarize themselves. You will also want to consider the role of deterrence in your security and what it may mean for police response. Deterrence is using audio and visual alarms to scare trespassers out of your property. While this may prevent immediate vandalism or theft, it can pose risks as your businesses may be repeatedly victimized. Partnering with a monitored video security provider that works with dispatchers to respond without the use of alerts and sirens often results in immediate intervention and apprehension. In some cases, these interventions can lead to charges for the trespasser. Law enforcement officers will require signage at property entrances that clearly states no trespassing in order to effectively respond to a trespassing call – review your signage to ensure you are compliant to give responding officers the best chance to intervene a crime in progress before loss or damage can occur.
Understand Crime Displacement and How it Shifts Criminal Activity.
Crime displacement is the result of implementation of crime prevention measures in a particular area that leads to a shift in criminal activity. This shift could be to another location or change in the type of offense. Crime displacement can occur for various reasons, including increased police presence, security measures, or even environmental changes. While the primary goal of crime prevention efforts is to reduce overall criminal activity, displacement is often an inevitable result. Crime displacement can mean that criminal activity physically is relocated to other areas that are less protected. This is also why building a community with other neighbouring businesses can help drive crime away from your location. Crime can also shift in type. This can mean that instead of theft and vandalism, you may notice an increase in other types of criminal activity like, fraud or impersonation.
Learn more about Crime and its Root Causes within your Community.
Investing time into learning more about the challenges some people face can help you understand the crime landscape in your area. It also gives your businesses the unique opportunity to invest in mitigating potential future crime in your community. There are organizations that can help you learn more locally about the barriers individuals face and the factors that can lead to criminal activity.
Working closely with providers that offer a true partnership in reducing crime, means you can make a meaningful impact on your local community. If you have questions about crime in your community or anything you’ve read in this article, call us at Radius and our team would be happy to help.