National Community Safety and Crime Prevention Month

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November is National Community Safety and Crime Prevention Month and the HRM Public Safety Office encourages you to play a role in public safety. 

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure and to help you make crime prevention a part of your daily routine, we’re sharing our Top Ten Crime Prevention Tips.

  1. Be informed about crime trends in areas where you live, work and play. Stay tuned to HRM Crime Mapping, our news feed and our social media channels (Facebook – Halifax Regional Police and Twitter - @HfxRegPolice).
  2. Trust your intuition. If a certain person, place or situation makes you feel uncomfortable, leave immediately.
  3. Make your home less inviting to criminals. Trim trees and shrubs to reduce blind spots and eliminate hiding places for intruders. Ensure your front entrance is well-lit and consider installing motion activated exterior lights.
  4. Always lock your doors and latch all accessible windows when leaving your home or retiring for the evening. It’s important to do this even if you’re just working in your yard, raking leaves or shovelling snow.
  5. Close your curtains at night and make sure valuable items can’t be easily seen from outside.
  6. Avoid allowing strangers into your home. Request identification from sales and service people. If you haven’t initiated the visit, ask that they wait outside while you contact their employer to confirm it’s a legitimate service call.
  7. Never leave valuable items unattended. Wallets, cell phones, backpacks and laptop computers left alone in a public area are a temptation to would-be thieves.
  8. Keep your vehicle locked and remove all items, including gym bags and loose change, from sight.
  9. Never provide bank, credit card or other personal information to anyone who contacts you by phone, email or social media. Visit the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre website at http://www.antifraudcentre-centreantifraude.ca/ for more information on fraud prevention.
  10. Don’t advertise your plans online. Sharing information about where you are or where you’re going to be, e.g. posting your vacation plans or ‘checking in’ on social media sites, can provide criminals with the information they need to commit a crime.

Following these tried and true tips will help keep you, your family and neighbourhood safe and secure.