Years ago I attended a talk about safety and crime prevention given by a local police officer. One thing he said led me to develop a habit, something I’ve done ever since. He recommended that everyone should look out their window for a few minutes each night and call the police to report anything suspicious or out of the ordinary. Sounded like a good idea to me. If a lot of people do this, it adds up to many hours of crime-preventing observation.
Before I go to bed at night, I look out one of my windows for a couple minutes. I just take a look at the street, sidewalk, parked cars (including my own), my neighbors’ houses and everything I can see. If I see anything suspicious, I call the police on the non-emergency number.
I’ve called the police twice. Once it was because I saw some young men driving around with a man seated on the top of the car! Pretty weird. I guess they were drunk or high. Another time I saw a man walking up one side of the street and down the other, stopping and peering into parked cars. Both the car and the man got out of sight before the police arrived, but both times I did see a police car drive by soon after I called. Did I prevent some crime? Maybe.
Everyone should do their part.
