Bay Pointe Neighborhood Watch

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BRADENTON POLICE DEPARTMENT

In an Emergency dial 911

Non-emergency number 932-9300

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What We Can Do To Decrease Crime

Many people, both watch members and non watch residents ask the same question, “What can we do to get rid of crime.” I wish we could just do something to make our neighborhoods crime-free. But I think we all know that is not possible. What we can do is eliminate or reduce the success of the criminal to commit a crime. How can we do that?

In order for a criminal to have success, there has to be 3 elements present:

ABILITY OF THE CRIMINAL

DESIRE OF THE CRIMINAL

THE OPPORTUNITY FOR A CRIME TO BE COMMITTED

This triangle shows the fact that we for crime to take place all three things need to be in place at the same time.

We cannot take away the ability of the suspect to commit a crime. Nor can we take away his/her desire to commit the crime. HOWEVER, we can certainly take away or reduce the opportunity for the subject to commit the crime. We can do that by keeping our garage doors down, locking our homes and vehicles, taking all items our of our vehicles that are visible from the outside, be aware of our surroundings at all times, do not flash cash or jewelry when shopping, do not give out any personal information to anyone we do not know, be skeptical of any “get rich fast schemes”, making sure we have the correct locks for windows and doors, keeping shrubbery no taller than 2 feet and trees no lower than 6 feet around our homes, beware of any emails asking us to “click on a link”, giving money to someone that calls saying they are our “grandson or granddaughter or other relative (without checking with family to confirm who is really calling), calling in ALL solicitations so that our officers can respond and check them out and allow code enforcement to fine them, calling in all suspicious persons,vehicles or activities etc.

Anything we can do to remove the opportunity for crime to be committed breaks the triangle of crime and allows all of us to have safer neighborhoods for everyone!

And isn’t that why we are a part of the Watch and have a strong partnership with the BPD


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