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City Hall175 East 200 NorthSt. George, UT 84770(435) 627-4000
| November 21, 2009 |
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Levels of Awareness In our police training we are taught about levels of awareness and they are color-coded for identification purposes. Level white indicates someone who doesn't have a clue. Yellow indicates a level of awareness to the extent that the person is conscious of their surroundings and is not yet aware of a problem but is looking for them as they crop up. And when situations manifest themselves, they are aware and ready to take action. Orange is the level where a problem manifests itself and the person picks up on it and is ready to do something: to document, call police or go to someone's aid. Many people are in conditions that should be perceived as yellow or orange, but are mentally in condition white. The problems or risks are there, but are not picked up on. This is where criminals are allowed to function, where crimes are being committed. This is where we fail to lock our cars, our houses, our garages. Then we come home and get upset that someone violated the sanctity of our space, never mind that we unknowingly extended the opportunity, and an ever-watchful criminal accepted our generous offer. "We live in St. George. Stuff like that doesn't happen here" or "We moved here to get away from things like that" are common statements from victims. Many police reports would not have to be taken if more were aware and took precautions that would prevent "impulse criminal behavior." Kind of like the candy bars at the checkout stand in the market: many crimes are crimes of opportunity. We take reports of thefts from cars in church parking lots because "it's OK, we're going to church." We take theft reports at homes because "We'll be in the back yard. Don't worry" and the garage door is left open. Often we hear "It's OK, we'll just be a minute" and the victims come out of the store or the movies to find that the cell phone, the money in the ash tray or the dayplanner is gone. Young ladies are assaulted when they extend "opportunities" by walking through dark parks late at night, when they go to a questionable party and accept a drink from a "friend", or when they accept a ride from a "friend of a friend." Sometimes they even fail to take a ride from a friend and walk home by themselves and put themselves in harm's way. Some crimes go unsolved simply because someone was in condition white and didn't perceive the suspicious person or vehicle that was casing a potential target for later. They were there cruising the area and people saw but failed to perceive. After a home invasion robbery years ago, the neighbors realized that they had noticed the suspects cruising their streets in the days prior to the robbery. They had seen them, but didn't write things down. One of our best Mobile Watch members solved a string of crimes one day. A lady heard glass shatter and ran out to see a white vehicle leaving the scene. She called in a possible plate. It was incorrect by one digit. Our Mobile Watch member thought it sounded familiar, went out to his notebook and looked up a plate number he had written down 10 days prior. 2 boys in a white car in his area of town ran a stop sign and he didn't recognize the vehicle. He located the number in his notebook and called it in. It came back with a vehicle description which was put out over the radio. An alert officer caught the boys a half hour later in this vehicle and they confessed to shooting out many car windows over the past month. This is what Community Policing is all about. It is about people caring enough about their homes, their neighbors and their neighborhood that they get involved. They "pull on the big boy pants and do it." They take precautions. They watch out for each other. And they work with the police to provide information to solve "their crimes." There are a few things you can do to become more aware:
By becoming more aware, you lessen your chances of becoming a victim. By becoming more aware, you can assist the police with the necessary information that would lead to the apprehension of a criminal in an otherwise unsolved crime. By becoming more aware, you can take the necessary steps to protect yourself and your family and make the criminals realize that St. George is not a place that extends opportunities for crime to occur. Craig Harding Public Information Officer St. George Police Department |
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