Archive for July, 2010

One of the main things you can do to prevent your home from becoming a target for break-ins is to always make it look like you’re at home.

If you’re away form an extended period of time, you should always stop your newspaper delivery and put a temporary hold on your mail. You can also have a trusted neighbour come by regularly and collect any mail before it builds up.

Placing your lights on timers and leaving a car in your driveway definitely help as well.

Now, with technology and social media growing, there are a few new things to avoid as well.
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Statistics Canada has released their police-reported crime statistics for 2009.

“The crime rate, a measure of the volume of crime reported to police, fell 3% in 2009 and was 17% lower than a decade ago.

The Crime Severity Index (CSI), a measure of the seriousness of police-reported crime, declined 4% in 2009 and stood 22% lower than in 1999.

Violent crimes, which range in seriousness from harassing phone calls to homicide, accounted for about 1 in 5 crimes in 2009. Police-reported violent crime in Canada is also declining, but to a lesser extent than overall crime.”

From the Toronto Star:

“The facial-recognition software Toronto police will use to track down suspects in its G20 summit investigation is an off-the-shelf tool that can sort through multiple databases very quickly.

The Canadian Bankers Association bought and installed the software because ‘the banks and the CBA have investigative functions, too. We investigate crimes against banks,’ spokeswoman Maura Drew-Lytle said Thursday.

Their source is mostly ‘photos from security cameras’ in banks, she said. Once the banks compile their information, ‘we turn it over to the police.’

In the G20 investigation, the CBA and its technicians trained in using facial-recognition software will help police try to match the pictures they have from images on many different databases, including those from Canada Border Services Agency.”

Security cameras have long been used to identify criminals.

When a crime takes place, one of the first thing police officers do is try an obtain as much security camera footage as they can. Having the actions of a criminal recorded on video presents a strong case. That’s why video surveillance cameras are such effective deterrents to crime.

As technology improves, the ability to correctly identify criminals grows.