Do you feel safe at home, at work, while traveling, or sending your children to school or out to play? We have all seen news reports detailing the personal attacks on our children and on the innocent victims of crimes. The terrorist attacks have heightened our anxiety to an all time high. This has brought this question to the forefront of our thoughts and our everyday activities. The following is designed to help give you an advantage on what to do to protect yourself, and your family.

Our number one concern is the safety of our children. We will provide you with some very important child safety tips on school safety, home safety, bicycle safety, and general safety tips.

If your child is a latch key child, (a child who comes home to an empty house because their parents work full time), you should do the following:

• Make arrangements for a safe house. A location nearby where the child can go if they don’t feel safe.
• If your child goes home and they get a feeling that something isn’t right, for example the door is ajar, or they think someone may be following them, let them know that they should go straight to the safe house location.
• The following are some general safety tips to follow for your children:

• Do not put your child’s name on any clothing or items that the child may be carrying that is visible to the public. Predators often use this information to establish a conversation with your child. If the stranger knows their name, the child may not think of them as a stranger.

• Always be aware of your child’s activities. Know where they are at all times. Know their schedule at school and any field trips they may be going on.
• If your child walks to school, map out a route and know exactly how long it takes them to walk or ride their bike on that route.
• If they ride the bus, know what time the bus leaves and what time the bus arrives at it’s destination.

• Know who your children’s friends are. Not just their name, their address, their phone numbers, their parent’s names and any other information about that child that may affect your child. Have that list of names and information readily available in the event that you need to do a search for your child.

• Parents should explain to children that they are always to stay away from anyone who calls them to go near their car, even if they offer to take them somewhere exciting.
• Teach your child that if a stranger tries to summon them to a car, to run away immediately.
• Do not EVER leave your children unattended in your vehicle, and NEVER allow children to play in or around vehicles - not even for a minute!
• ALWAYS keep you hands on your child in crowded places. It only takes an instant for your child to disappear from your view.
• Encourage your children to walk and play with friends - they should never go anywhere alone.
• Tell them to avoid places that could possibly be dangerous...vacant apartment buildings, alleys, playgrounds with broken equipment, etc.
• Lock you doors and windows at night. Regularly double check the window to your child’s room and make sure that it is locked. Let you child know that if a stranger comes into their room, to scream loud, non stop until you come to their aid. Teach them to NEVER go willing with any stranger, even if they threaten to hurt you the parent.
• Collect critical information from your child. This would include vital information, such as fingerprints and a DNA sample. This is possible to do on your own.

• Midvale Police can furnish you with a finger print kits to Midvale resident parents. This will enable you to take you child’s fingerprints at home. We expect delivery of these around the middle of December.
• To collect a DNA sample, you will need two sterile cotton swabs, and two zip lock plastic baggies. Follow the procedure below:

• Rub a clean (sterile if possible) cotton swab on inside of cheek until moist.
• Let cotton swab air dry for twenty-four hours.
• When dry, place cotton swab in a zip-lock bag and seal bag.
• Label with permanent pen - child's name and sample date.
• Save in freezer until needed.
• Follow the same procedure for blood sample. However, wait until child scrapes or cuts him/herself before taking sample.
• You may also save baby teeth in same manner.
• You can also use sterile gauze.

Personal Safety

You can take steps to improve your personal safety by following a few simple guidelines. Next we will give you information on safety for women, seniors, car parks, car jacking, travel, road-rage, business and work place safety.

Home Safety

When we are at home we feel safe, and tend to relax and not follow basic safety rules. The most important of which is to lock your doors at night. In many of the child abductions that have occurred, the perpetrator entered the home through an unlocked door. Consider getting an alarm in your home. Most alarms can be set to a nighttime setting that will alert you from your sleep if an intruder enters the home. Here are more tips to follow:

• Have emergency phone numbers posted next to the phone. Make sure you teach your children how to call 911. This includes what information the emergency operator will need. Your child will have to know his or her address.
• If you have firearms in your home, make sure that they are locked up and inaccessible to your children. If you leave the firearm out for protection from an intruder, remember this: the chances of your child finding that firearm and injuring or killing themselves or another person are far greater than your chances of needing a firearm for protection.

Safety for Women

Here are a few important safety tips for women.

• If you feel uneasy about any person, act on that feeling and get away from the situation. Trust your instincts.
• The first rule is to avoid any places and situations where any confrontations can occur.
• Be aware of your surroundings. If you sense a problem, change your route, or cross the road, and prepare yourself to run or defend yourself.
• There is only one rule if you are attacked. You must survive. You have to do everything you can: Scream, scratch, bite, hit, kick, or attack with any object you can find. Do all that is needed to end the threat or to have enough time to escape.
• Women should carry a noisemaker that will make a lot of loud noise if activated.
• You could also carry some pepper spray with you, however there are some drawbacks to using pepper spray. It is not effective on some people. You also have the chance of it affecting you to the point that it incapacitates you.

Children are not the only ones who need to take care and use extra caution in their daily lives. Seniors are a segment of our population that need to take extra safety precautions. There are many who prey on innocent seniors because they believe they are an easy target.

• Make sure you keep your doors locked, even in the daytime.
• Make sure you have dead bolts on your exterior doors.

• All windows should have locks and be sure to use them! And don't rely on the lock that your sliding glass doors came with. Use a stick in the door or a drop down arm.
• Make sure you have a peep hole in your door. Use the peep hole and make sure that you know the person who is at the door.
• Never let sales people inside your home.
• Never let any repair people inside your home if you did not order the repair. If you did, make them show you their identification.
• If living alone, you shouldn't publicize it. Single seniors are thought of to be easier targets by some.
• Have a close friend or neighbor check in with you once a day, and vice versa. You can both be a support to each other, and it's good to know that one of you will be there for the other in case of any emergencies.
• Get to know your neighbors and let them know when/if you go away. This way if they notice any suspicious activity, they'll be able to report it.
• If someone calls to tell you that you've won something, don't automatically provide any personal information if asked. Get their name, organization's name, phone number, and any other pertinent information, and verify it yourself. If a salesperson keeps calling and bothers you for any personal information, tell them that you're not interested, and to take you off their list - then hang up.
• DO NOT give out any bank account numbers or any other personal information. If they keep calling after you've asked them to remove you from their list, you can report them.

Keep safety in mind while traveling to our everyday ventures. While traveling to work, or to take our children to the many daily adventures, keep these safety tips in mind.

• Always keep your doors locked on your car while traveling. Many car jacking’s occur while waiting at red lights. If someone tries to enter your car at a red light, hit the gas pedal and get away fast. Never just sit there and let them get into your car. Honk your horn to attract as much attention as you can.
• When you pick out a parking area, make sure that it is well lit.
• If you park in a multi-story car park, choose a space as close to the exit as possible, near ground level and away from pillars.
• Reverse into position for a quick exit. When you return, have your car keys ready and check the back seat before you get in.
• Look around you for anyone hovering before you get out of your car.
• If you think you are being followed keep driving until you reach a busy public place.
• If your car is hit from behind, delay getting out of the car and if you feel threatened sound your horn to attract attention and use a mobile phone to contact the police giving details of where you are a description of the people and details of the car.

Here are some basic tips for dealing with an aggressive driver who is directing road rage at you:

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