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Posts from August 2009

The Bucket List

“Live life to the fullest,” “Live like there’s no tomorrow,” “Live each day as if it were your last,’’ — our society is filled with a number of catch phrases designed to inspire us all to take nothing for granted and seize the day! Unfortunately, we don’t all take heed of this advice until our days are numbered.

Can you Twitter Crime Away?

With the explosion of Twitter and other social media sites, I have often wondered why people have felt the need to share every aspect of their personal lives online. I figured maybe people just want to brag about being out to dinner or a Hawaiian vacation. Many of us in the crime prevention field believe that we, as a society, are sharing too much personal information as the social media revolution continues to unfold.

How Will You Respond to the Worsening Homeless Problem?

Recent news stories have brought to light another issue for law enforcement—attacks on the homeless. Estimates are that the homeless population has swelled to more than one million nationally, with almost 50 percent lacking shelter. Moreover, the National Coalition for the Homeless reports a rise in violence against the homeless, with at least 880 unprovoked attacks and 244 fatalities. Most of the attacks were brutal—a man in Cleveland savagely beaten in a group attack, a man in Los Angeles set on fire, a woman pushed down a steep staircase and another raped. The Coalition reports that most of these attacks were committed by males aged 25 or younger and that in the last 10 years 58 percent of attackers were teenagers.

United We Serve: Serving for Safety

Hurricane season is upon us, and while we are much better at predicting, tracking, and preparing for storms than we were a few decades ago, the aftermath of these natural disasters is unchanged—destruction, casualties, and profound disruption to our daily living. Time and again, however, research shows that people who believe themselves to be “prepared” for disasters often aren’t as prepared as they think. The same goes for our safety and security.