Two Ways to Help Catch Criminals

Police -- generally --do not like members of the public or even business owners to get directly involved in arresting criminals. And for good reason.

There are too many stories of people being injured or killed by persons trying to resist muggers or robbers – but there are two things that you can do to help police prevent crimes or find and arrest much easier without endangering yourself or other persons – both part of a security professionals repertoire of tactics.

The first one is to keep in mind and use the "Rule of Three" – whether you are a private citizen or security professional. It is quite simple: If you see a person (or persons) or a suspicious vehicle showing up three times around your property, within a few minutes, few hours or even a few days -- without good reason -- call the -- non-emergency -- number of your local police department and tell them about your suspicions.

Generally the police dispatcher will send a patrol by as soon as possible to check out the situation. Depending on how busy the police department is the police could be on the scene Other times it could take longer. In the meantime keep yourself in a safe position. Do not attempt to intercept such persons yourself.

In many cases you will find out that the subjects are harmless and it is just a coincidence that they keep circling your neighbourhood – but in other cases you will find out they are either scouting out the neighbourhood prior to a break-in or they are stalking you or somebody else.

The second thing, and it is critical that you do this accurately – is to give the police an accurate description of the person or persons when the police do arrive and talk to you and the suspect has disappeared. And this not always that easy to do. I remember one account I read of how a bank manager's description of the robber was found to be the opposite of reality when the robber was finally

 

You can get good at this however. One bank security guard made an extra effort to get good at this by creating mental pictures of persons who had just passed him whenever he had a chance. Doing this, he eventually developed the skill to capture a person's image in his mind very quickly as they passed by and this helped him to pass on much more valuable information to the police as well as right more accurate and descriptive reports.

Everyone can do this and this is one of the safest and best ways you as a private citizen or security professional can work with and assist the police.