False Sense
of Security - by Carla Base
One of the worst things we can have is a false sense
of security. If you have ever worked in the security industry; security
officers, police officers, guards or other capacities, you realize quickly on
the job that there is a small team (or just you! ) of people to be a first
responder, and then there are many people whom you must serve. It is rather
daunting when you first realize in clarity that a whole campus of hundreds to
thousands can be depending on enforcment of safety and security personnel who are
overworked and way understaffed. Their attention is divided and they are so
outnumbered. They must necessarily respond
to each and every time an electrical problem exists or plumbing
catastrophe resulting in a dorm flooding, for example. Then they are not there
when a rapist or shooter is stalking the campus grounds. It opens your eyes to
the thought. It strikes you hard. YOU are the security and you cannot be
everywhere at once. How must the police feel to know in our own city that in a
population noted to be at 637,428 people in Louisville, Kentucky, that there
are (not counting people answering phones or doing law enforcement related jobs
but ACTUAL police) 1, 211 police. This makes the statistics boil down to 19
police officers for each 10,000 Loiusville has. Each call to police is because someone thought it important
enough to call, and most people don't even like to involve themselves out of
fear or apathy. They fear they will become fingered to be the ones to identify
criminals who will snarl at them and promise retribution for identifying them.
But many good citizens will report when needed on the other hand, and do daily.
You have to realize that people see a lot. They see a lot more than they even
know. But collectively we see nearly everything. When we all work together and
communicate, we can catch criminals who will harm us all.
A few weeks
ago, a friend stated she was going out of town on a vacation. She was not
worried because she had "asked the police to look after" her house.
Have you ever listened to a local channel of the police? Do you have an iPad?
You can download the free police radios from all over the country including
Louisville, Kentucky, specifically, Jefferson County or wherever you desire.
Sit there and listen awhile and you realize that the police make one run after
another. Some are a waste of their time, others are a flurry of action and
reaction. People are overdosing, fighting, selling drugs, stabbing, shouting
and pointing. They are screaming, accusing, having domestic quarrels ending in
violence and children are being violated. So much goes on in one single night
in any given place that it is an eye opening experience. You may hear your own
street mentioned or people you know at times. You may hear of shots being fired.
So many activities and yet there are so few to stand up to the nightly barrage
of events.
We have a sense
of security when we are locked up, tucked in and cozy. It may or may not be the
case that we ARE secure. A healthy respect for reality never hurts. Given the
numbers presented of the number of officers to the number of citizens in
Louisville, we realize that even if we call immediately, which we cannot and
will not generally, for we may be asleep or engaged in work or unaware, that
police may be involved in another case. On top of the sheer numbers of them
being watered down, they are spread out over an area that is very large. Recent
probelms in other states can reflect upon the entire community of all types of
law enforcement. If one city or town has a scandal surrounding police
brutality, for an example, then all law enforcement around the country shares
in the misery and the tarnish. We all know that one person's actions aren't the
actions of all, yet we also realize it sure does tarnish the collective
reputation, and we all can find ourselves being swept up in the hysteria that
every time police are involved in a situation that they could be overreacting
or venting pent up frustrations of an overworked force. If you keep accusing
anyone of doing something they are not doing, they eventually figure they've
earned the reputation either way and may as well do it since they are taking
the rap for it. The media has always been the voice of both the people and the
manipulator of the people. Since the written word was first printed and
distributed, we have had propaganda for and against many causes and factions.
We need to think well of who they represent. If you think that the media is
always representing all of us, think again. They sell products and services,
and scream against what they may wish to incite. The uninformed and uneducated
look no further than the TV screen and its commentary of interpretation because
they act on impulse. They are reactive and are easily manipulated into anger
and resentment, basic human gut reactions. Riots can be started and mass
hysteria can incite killings, lootings and misunderstandings for
generations. When we realize that we
want protection from strung out heroin addictss and meth heads, and the numbers
of police, security guards and other personnel are way behind the needs of a
growing population, we know then that it is all mostly up to us. We are the
majority and we have children and parents to protect. We have grandmothers and
grandfathers to shield. We have our youth to preserve to take the reins in the
future. Therefore, we must think first then act. We must be observant. We must
fortify our homes with solid measures that first prevent entrance into our
precious lives and those dear to us. We must then alarm them with technology to
alert us and police of breeches. We must use technology in all its glory to
stay one step ahead of crimes being planned. We must not wait for an alarm to
sound, but fortify that door or window first. Our lives and those of our
children depend on US, not law enforcement. We need to not lie back in some
haze of false security. We are sorely outnumbered and have to use our heads.
Buying a cookie cutter stamped out hunk of plastic in our homes to beep or buzz
if a door opens is fine, but often such cheap home systems only lull the owners
into false security. They make the owner think they bought something and are
done with the project. They are "safe" now. It has been purchased. If
a cheap or home installed system, it will malfunction, cry wolf way too many
times to police or users of such alarms, and cause a sense of disregard among
the police and distatse of the alarm owner. Junk will not save your family.
Times are quickly changing and it is not for the better. Take a look at the
grade school heroin problem in Louisville, KY. Do you live near a school? High
school is worse. Don't settle for something mass produced in China between your
family and such weirdos. Have security professionals look at your home and make
objective evaluations of your doors, windows, door jams and locks. Do it now,
not after a catastrophe. Get an alarm that is reliable and has a professional
grade quality and reputation for quality, not quantity. Don't fall for massadvertising and free offers of this and that. Nothing is free and if it is,
they are either low quality or false advertising. If they'd lie about a security system, how honest are
they? Continue to upgrade your home or
business with a combination of methods. No one thing will ever stop criminals
but a combination of blockades can stop them, and make sure they run out of
time before police can arrive. Lights can startle and cause criminals to
realize they are able to be seen now, that they are turning heads. Sirens in
the attic where they cannot disable them so simply can alert neighbors to look
out their windows. Locks and heavy doors that won't simply kick in take way too
much effort and now that the lights and neighbors are looking out….all spells
trouble for the would-be burglar. Don't be the one on the block that didn't
think ahead and make some iron block against forcing open your basement window
or knocking out you locks. Don't put one lock on the door that is high tech.
Have a combination of locks that brute strength cannot force as well as the
criminal who is high tech cannot match. My father was in the
Counterintelligence Corps and told me this: "Every lock can be picked,
every safe, cracked. What is important, is that you know this and make sure to
make the criminal take way too much time to break in."
If we can call
attention to him while in the act, if we can thwart his efforts, then we have
survived his attack. If you already have a simple alarm system you were talked
into, have it evaluated and beefed up.
Make sure you do have solid motion sensors, glass break detectors, loud
sirens and a responsive alarm. But don't get anything if you don't get a camera
view that will record the criminals face. If you don't like your alarm panel,
upgrade it. It can be done! Have doors and windows and prone areas evaluated,
check for unlit areas or weak spots or "chinks in your armor." Then
fix them. Upgrade your lock system. Get a professional to help you, not just
some marketer. Many of those systems won't help you when a contact falls off
the wall and you call for assistance. They don't know you the minute you have
some issue. They scoff at the idea you may need some followup. Be ever
vigilant, with or without a security system. Knowing you have safe habits and
have indoctrinated your family in them is everything. Know that the minute you
leave the house it is locked and the minute in the door it is locked. Same
thing with the car: lock it the minute you enter it and the minute you exit it,
paying attention all the while that no one is lingering around your car before
you exit, or that there is no one in your car before you enter it. Lock all
garages and don't allow the possiblity that someone can get your remote to the
garage. Have a physical bolt to slide into place so that even if the garage is
opened with a remote, it cannot move upward in the night, or when you are gone.
Don't assume the garage is inpenetrable. Security is always in multiple layers.
Lock the car that is inside that garage, and lock the garage as well as the
door to the inside of the house. Don't fall prey to the worst offense: A false
sense of security is the worst thing in the world .