Historical December 1989 report or notice. Original dates, prices and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
Believe It!
Not one GM car with a tilt steering column that has been installed with a steering column collar has had the collar broken and the car stolen! It’s a doggone good $50 investment. Call Operation SafeStreet at 622-3444 for the number of the installer closest to you. Save Yourself Doing something after a crime has been committed is often fruitless. Unless you’ve been a victim, it’s difficult to explain the frustration that is shared by the victim, Operation SafeStreet, and the police.
In many instances criminals are neither apprehended, prosecuted, nor convicted.
Even when the criminal justice system is able to work, the victims are not spared the irreparable losses of life and property that may have resulted from the crime.
This is particularly true of the one crime which occurs most frequently… home burglary. Only after a family returns home and discovers that their privacy has been violated, their home ransacked, and valuable belongings have been stolen, do most people truly feel the frustration. It’s difficult to explain to a victim that there is little urgency in responding to a burglary complaint after the fact.
The clearance rate for residential burglary in the City of St. Louis during the first nine months of 1989 was only 15%. Burglary is truly a crime of frustration. Burglary is also a crime of opportunity.
And this is the root cause of the frustration and frequency of the crime. Reducing the opportunity for burglary can and does work.
No one (except the criminal) should have to live in a fortress! But, without going to such extremes, you can slow the average burglar down. Poor security habits during the holidays, locks which are easily defeated, unlocked windows and doors, not being observant, not calling the police and being willing to identify suspicious persons to the police, are examples of opportunities for a burglary to occur.
We are not talking to those of you who have been victimized. You probably know only too well what could have been done differently.
We need to get the message across to the hundreds who don’t go to a neighborhood meeting, who haven’t thought about their risks and the habits they should be using to secure themselves and their neighbors…all of those people who haven’t been victimized, and believe it can’t happen to them or in their neighborhood. Reducing criminal opportunity is clearly the responsibility of every citizen. Call Operation SafeStreet if we can help, right now when you need it!
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, December 1989.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1989_12.pdf, printed page(s) 2; PDF page(s) 2.
