Crime Prevention Tips

CHILD SAFETY

• Make sure children know their full name, address (city and state) and telephone number, including area code.
• Be sure that children know how to use 911 and how to use a pay phone.
• Teach children never to accept rides or gifts from people they do not know.
• Teach children to go to a store clerk, security guard or police officer if they get lost in a mall, store or on the street.
• Children should be accompanied to the restrooms.
• Show children safe places they can go in your neighborhood in an emergency, like a trusted neighbor’s house.
• Inspect your neighborhood for areas that threaten children’s safety, like brush in a wooded area, overgrown shrubbery, poor lighting, etc.
• Encourage children to walk and play with friends, not alone. Tell them to avoid places that could be dangerous – vacant buildings, alleys, new construction, wooded areas, etc.
• Make sure that children take the safest routes to and from school, stores and friends houses.
• Teach children to walk confidently and to be alert to what’s going on around them.
• Tell children to avoid strangers who may hang around playgrounds, public restrooms, empty buildings, etc.
  Teach children to always take the same way home from school.
• Children should not walk next to the curbs.
• Children should not play alone on the playgrounds.
• Parents should take time to listen carefully to children’s fears and feelings about people or places that scare them or make them feel uneasy. Tell them to trust their instincts. Take complaints about bullies seriously.
• Children should check in with a parent or trusted neighbor immediately after arriving at home.
• Children should carry their house key on them in a concealed place. It should not be left hidden outside the house.
• Children should be taught to use the door and window locks and alarm system, if there is one.
• Children should know to never allow anyone into the home without the parent’s permission.
• Children should never let a caller at the door or on the telephone know that they are alone.
• Children must be taught how to escape a house in case of a fire.
• Parents should take time to talk to children about the deadly consequences of guns, medicines, power tools, drugs, alcohol, cleaning products and inhalants. These items should be in a secure place out of sight and locked up.
• When home alone, children should be able to easily locate key telephone numbers such as:
  - Parents work number(s)
  - Numbers of relatives or trusted neighbors
  - Police and Fire Departments
  - Poison Control Center
  
  
  BACK TO CRIME PREVENTION TIPS