|
ter·ror
(t r  r)
n.
"Violence committed or threatened by a group to intimidate or coerce a
population, as for military or political purposes."
The
threat of terrorism has become very real. And the fear of terrorist acts
has become even greater than the fear of crime.
While
it are foreign nationals that come to mind when we think about terrorism, the
majority of terrorist acts committed on American soil are committed by
Americans.
Can
people and businesses afford to take steps to minimize becoming a
terrorist target?
They
can by maintaining safe homes, safe communities.
The
same principles that are applied to preventing crime can be applied to
preventing terrorist acts. The need for crime prevention has
never been greater.
Following
are some basic things we can do.:
-
Teach community members to take steps to secure their family,
their residence, their business, their personal property
-
Teach community members to always be alert and aware of
their surroundings
-
Encourage the reporting of suspicious activity
through appropriate channels
-
Create an anonymous tip line such as Crime Stoppers or
Silent Observer
-
Activate
neighborhood watch or block group
programs
-
Create a liaison between
neighborhood groups and your law enforcement agency
-
Develop a system to disseminate information in
the neighborhood in order to:
Prevention is the key ingredient to avoiding or minimizing
disasters and tragedies. While it is difficult to show what specific
disasters or tragedies never occurred or were minimized because of prevention, its impact
can easily be measured through the reduction in crime, fire, and accident rates
over the years.
|
