Posted on 11/20/2006 9:36:34 AM PST by kiriath_jearim
[This weekly column is supplied by Citizens' Crime Watch of Miami-Dade and is intended to provide information that will help readers in their efforts to be safe.]
Before I get into this week's subject, I would like to comment on a couple of things from last week's column on gun safety. I received dozens of e-mails from people across the country who did not agree with my suggestions on gun safety measures. I should have stated that those measures are recommended by groups such as the National Crime Prevention Council.
Those who wrote were adamant about not giving up their guns, and many referred to incidents in which people used their guns to protect themselves. One reader even indicated that his 4-year-old child already knows how to handle a gun.
It was quite enlightening to learn how people around the country feel about their guns. Several felt insulted by my comment that ''in 26 years of crime prevention I had not seen anything good regarding owning a gun.'' I should have clarified that my 26 years have been in Miami-Dade, which is apparently very different from the rest of the country.
What many of these readers do not understand is that residents of Miami-Dade County prefer to work with their law enforcement, working to prevent crime by cooperating with their neighbors and using their intelligence to avoid becoming victims of crime. This is a lot more challenging than just owning a gun.
So, I want to let everyone here in Miami-Dade know that the Miami Police Department Community Relations Section, the South District and the State Attorney's Office will present ''The Crime Prevention Gun Buy Back'' from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Dec. 2 at the Winn-Dixie Supermarket parking lot at 3275 Coral Way. You will receive a $50 voucher for each gun you turn in, no questions asked. So, if you have a gun that is just sitting around, drop it off.
Several businesses have e-mailed me to ask about preventing crime in the upcoming holiday season. Here are some suggestions:
• Keep your cash register in plain view from the outside so that it can be monitored by the police and passersby after business hours.
• Keep only small amounts of cash in the registers. Empty the cash drawers and leave them open after hours.
• Make bank deposits often and during business hours but don't establish a noticeable pattern.
• Be sure your safe is fireproof, securely anchored and in plain view. Use a drop safe so cash cannot be taken out once it is put in -- and post signs accordingly.
• Do not keep valuable goods in display windows when the store is closed.
• Consider installing antitheft devices on inventory.
• Mark valuable equipment such as registers, computers and calculators with an identification number. Post an ''Operations I.D.'' warning sticker in your storefront. You can obtain these from our Citizens' Crime Watch office once you have marked the equipment.
• Make sure that your employees know how to reduce opportunities for shoplifting. Use mirrors to eliminate ''blind spots'' that may hide shoplifters.
• Train your employees to report suspicious activity and write down the information for future reference.
• Talk to employees about what to do if confronted by a robber. Remind them that they should cooperate to avoid harm and notify police as soon as possible. Make sure that your employees know where alarm buttons are located.
• Make sure that you have proper lights in and outside your business, especially around doors, windows and other entry points. If possible, use vandal-proof fixtures around outside entrances.
Thanks for the stats!
Think that they'll get pissed if I park myself, oh, say around 3325 Coral Way and make cash counter offers?
Yup. Only a .45 will do. Anything else is totally worthless, and no more deadly than a paper cut.
You do not walk away from a .45, and I have that from a good authority...an EMT with years of calls under his belt.
Make sure you turn in the TAXES for this 'barter' otherwise you will go to IRS hell.
Gosh! These liberals are treating us like terrorists! Remember? In Iraq, after knocking off Saddam, our troops had buy-back-weapon-collection points in Sadr City. Our troops used almost exactly the same honey-dripping message except the price was in the $hundreds, in cash!
And I believe the actors, etc you mentioned are going to Miami Beach - which is practically a Gated Community - not "Miami".
Oh Carmen, you ignorant airhead. You seem so oblivious to the fact that most theft is an inside job. What a worthless, feelgood, "I'm-helping-people!" waste of ink and paper article.
This is probably the absolute stupidest suggestion sensitive little Carmen could make. Perps just smash into the front of the store with a stolen car, snatch the register and they're gone. Hasn't she ever watched America's Most Wanted? Oh wait, she doesn't have to, half of that show is about Miami.
***Why must there always be hate?***
I'm sorry, I can't help it.
I'm mentally scarred by the three days I spent in Cross City, Dixie County, FL near the beautiful Swanee River back in 1988.
It's not that the locals weren't nice, it's just that I thought I was in a "Deliverance" flashback and I kept hearing banjo music. ;-)
Cletus you slack-jawed Yokel!! BTW, how is "Brandeen" doin'?
Where did he say all of that? Buying a .45 is an excellent choice. It has power without the magnum recoil. I have a 110 pound Daughter-in-Law who uses factory loads in her carry pistol with no problem.
• Remind them that they should cooperate to avoid harm.
NOT ALWAYS GOOD ADVICE
NEVER GO WITH THE ROBBER even if ordered to do so. I'm not a believer in stats but an employee's odds once they become an abductee/hostage from a retail setting are less than 50/50. It's usually the opener/closer of the store with keys and safe access they get, too.
I used to be a manager in a retail setting for a large printing/shipping company with storefronts all over the place in urban areas (open mostly 24/7). I was ashamed that, following an area robbery, the best I could do for my people was buy them all big fat Maglites at my own expense. We had tip-top video and panic buttons I checked all the time---but what does that do, really? I called the police to ask for advice and help and was told that the detectice working on the case was on vacation. So much for all that OT I put in for them when they needed stuff done yesterday (training materials, handbooks, video dupes, etc.).
Best advice for retail folks is RUN don't walk from RETAIL.
Unless you own a nice gun shop/range with a good discount bin and +p ammo IN STOCK.
Live in coral gables, unfortunately I will be in Chicago on the 2nd, otherwise I would go down to the "buy back" site and see what I could pick up cheap. A $75 Colt Peacemaker is my goal.
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