Neighbourhood Watch: STN 1 South YarraRegion 1 Division 2 Stonnington, Victoria, Australia.
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Neighbourhood Watch: STN 1 South Yarra
Region 1 Division 2
Stonnington, Victoria, Australia.
You are here: Home>Newsletters>March 2003
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March, 2003 Operation Identification: making your mark in crime prevention AS A RESULT of the stories in last month's newsletter, I have received a number of enquiries about Operation Identification and the use of an ultra violet pen to mark your property. So perhaps it's time to reiterate the principals of Operation Identification. Operation Identification is a crime prevention strategy which involves you marking any of your valuables which may be the target of a burglary - such items as TV's, VCR's, computers, printers, cameras, power tools, etc. The items are marked using an ultra violet pen with your driving licence number, preceded by a V for Victoria. If an interstate licence is held then the first letter of that State should be used. In addition, Neighbourhood Watch has a small sticker which you can attach to the item indicating that it has been marked for police identification in the event that it is stolen. You should also make a list of the property you have marked which shows the make, model, serial number and identifying features of the valuable. Property inventory forms are available from Neighbourhood Watch or you can download a copy from www.neighbourhhodwatch.com.au. Ultra violet pens can be purchased from stationery shops, newsagents and some hardware shops. Local Volunteers PRAHRAN Mission has a long history of volunteering associated with its programs. The Mission highly values, and depends on, the input of the 100 plus volunteers that provide assistance annually in almost all aspects of service delivery. Volunteers are employed in many areas of the Mission including the Café and Goodwill Shop. Their work is varied and includes: cooking, shopping, word processing, filing, gardening, sewing, collating, photocopying, preparing food, washing dishes, sales assistant, sorting goods, data entry, fundraising, talking to people, listening, clearing tables, customer service, tidying stock, assisting customers, answering phones, changing nappies, singing songs, reading stories. For further information contact the Community Services Manager on 9510 9055 or email: admin@prahranmission.org.au Perceptions of risk HUMAN beings might be expected to value each life, and each death, equally. We each face numerous hazards - war, disease, homicide, accidents, natural disasters - before succumbing to "natural" death. Some premature deaths shock us far more than others. Contrasting with the 2,800 fatalities in the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, we barely remember the 20,000 Indian earthquake victims earlier in the year 2001. It is a maxim that one needless or untimely death is one too many. So 20,000 victims should be 20,000 times worse. But our minds don't work that way. To researchers in risk perception, this is natural human behaviour. We are evolved from primitive nomads and cave dwellers who never knew, personally, more than the few hundred people in their locales. Until just a few generations ago, news from other lands arrived sporadically via sailors; most people lived and died within a few miles of where they were born. Tragedies invariably concerned a known, nearby person. With the globalization of communication, the world - not just our local neighbourhood - has entered our consciousness. But our brains haven't evolved to relate, personally, to each of the 6 billion people on the planet. Only when the media singles out someone - perhaps an "average layperson" or maybe a tragic exception - do our hearts and minds connect. When an aircraft crashes, and reporters focus on a despairing victims' spouse or on the last cellular phone words of a doomed traveller, our brains don't think statistically. We imagine ourselves in that aircraft seat, or driving to the airport counselling centre when our loved one's plane is reported missing. Worldwide airline accidents in 2001- including September 11 - killed fewer passengers than during an average year. But statistics can't compete with images of emergency workers combing a crash site for body parts with red lights flashing. We are gripped by fear as though the tragedy happened in our own neighbourhood, and another might soon happen again. Research on risk perception has shown that our reactions to hazards don't match the numerical odds. We fear events (like airline crashes) that kill many at once much more than those that kill one at a time (car accidents). We fear being harmed unknowingly (by carcinogens) far more than by things we feel we control ourselves (driving or smoking). We fear unfamiliar technologies (nuclear power) and terrorism far more than prosaic hazards (household falls). Such disproportionate attitudes shape our actions as public citizens. Accordingly governments spend vastly more per life saved to mitigate highly feared hazards (e.g., on aircraft safety) than on "everyday" risks (e.g., food poisoning). Risk analysts commonly accept, with neutral objectivity, the disparity between lay perceptions and expert risk statistics. Sometimes it is justifiable to go beyond raw statistics. Depending on our values, we might be more concerned about unfair deaths beyond an individual's control than self-inflicted harm. We might worry more about deaths of children than of elderly people with limited life expectancies. We might dread lingering, painful deaths more than sudden ones. We might be more troubled about "needless" deaths, with no compensating offsets, than about fatalities in the name of a larger good (e.g., of soldiers or police). Or, in all these cases, we might not. Consider some misperceptions of risk. Many news headlines concern shark attacks, which are an extreme distortion of serious societal issues (only ten people annually are killed by sharks worldwide). We can laugh at, or bemoan, the triviality of the media. But such stories reflect our own illogical concerns. One constructive antidote to post September 11 trauma is to enhance the information available and to foster sound appreciation, evaluation, and use of the information. Life is inherently risky, unpredictable, and subject to things we cannot know...but there are things we do know and can understand. Rather than scaring people about sharks, serial killers, and anthrax, the mass media could help people understand the real risks in their everyday environments and activities. Educational institutions should help students develop critical skills necessary to make rational choices. While avoiding intrusions into personal liberties, government could nevertheless collect and assess statistical data in those arenas (like air travel) where potential dangers lurk, concentrating protective efforts and law enforcement where it is most efficacious. Security expenditures, which in the zero-sum budget game are diverted from other vital purposes, are terribly expensive and disproportionate to competing needs for preventing other causes of death and misery in our society. While prudent, focussed improvements in security are called for, the sheer costs of security initiatives can greatly distort the way we address the many threats to our individual and collective well-being. Our greatest vulnerability to terrorism is the irrational fear of terrorism. We must behave like the informed, reasoning beings we profess to be. - Extract from an article in Skeptical Inquirer magazine by Clark R. Chapman and Alan W. Harris Risk Factors and Licensed Premises THE following is a list of risk factors identified by the Australian Institute of Criminology in their research into the reasons for violence and anti-social behaviour on licensed venues: • cheap drinks • mostly male clientele • overcrowding • high levels of intoxication • problematical bar design • inadequate seating • noise • poor ventilation • high energy live bands • sexual promotions or entertainment • low staff-patron ratios • aggressive or rigid security • slow service • competition between males (especially involving women). If you attend any entertainment venues which exhibit any of these risk factors, perhaps a word in the ear of the management would be in order, to ensure that their venue provides a safe and low - risk environment for patrons FUNNIES Q:Officer, when you stopped the defendant, were your red and blue lights flashing? A: Yes. Q: Did the defendant say anything when she got out of her car? A: Yes, sir. Q: What did she say? A: What disco am I at? What do you call a lawyer with an IQ of 50? Your Honour. A thief broke into the local police station and stole all the lavatory equipment. A spokesperson was quoted as saying, "We have absolutely nothing to go on." Next Meeting
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Last modified 19 August 2003.