Community Roll Call

With some recent incidents there seems to be more concern on how to stay safe. Below are some things that should be considered.

• Do you have a "Block Watch" organized on your block? If you do not and would like to meet your neighbors, learn how to recognize crime and team up to take a stand against it in your neighborhood; then contact the Wauwatosa Police Department’s Community Support Division at 414-471-8430 ext. 111 for information and help getting started!
• Do you want to reduce your chances of being the victim of a crime? Then contact the Wauwatosa Police Department's Community Support Division and schedule a home or business security survey. Although we cannot guarantee you will not be the victim of a crime we can make suggestions to make your home more secure and take away the "Bad Guy's" opportunity. Let's keep the bad guys off of our streets.
• Residents are reminded to lock and properly secure their homes, garages, vehicles and businesses. Please remember, and remind your neighbors to call 911 immediately if they see any suspicious people or vehicles.
• Never leave anything of value in plain sight in your vehicle or home.
• You are reminded that if you are the victim of a crime you should report that crime immediately! Delay in reporting hampers investigation and lessons the chance of making an arrest and recovering property.

Regarding suspicious persons or activities, read below

First of all “Suspicious” is not a stranger walking up our street. But that same stranger walking back and forth, hanging around, looking up and down driveways, looking into cars or looking into homes; now that is suspicious. A vehicle that is unknown to our neighborhood that drives up our street is not suspicious. But if that same vehicle is continually driving up and down the street, or through the alley or parked in the driveway of an unoccupied house; now that is suspicious. How about the movers, plumber or cable guy at your neighbor’s house while they are away on vacation? Suspicious? I would think so. Now of course, this small paragraph does not identify all the possible activities that can be suspicious; you will have to be the judge in most circumstances, trust your intuition.

If it is suspicious, it does warrant a call to the police department. That is an immediate call, do not hesitate. The sooner you call the sooner we can respond and hopefully contact the person or persons involved in the suspicious activity. As a police officer there is nothing more frustrating than receiving the call about suspicious activity 10 -20 minutes after it was observed. And worse than that is talking to the neighbors after a burglary or other such crime and finding out that a clearly suspicious person or vehicle was observed in the area, but that person did not want to bother the police.

You, the citizens of Wauwatosa, are our best law enforcement asset.

Well then, it seems that my blogging has become a point of discussion on the Tosa Towne Square bulletin board. In reading the four posts that were up at the time of this writing I want to point out that everyone voiced some truths in their posts.

That being said let me address some of the issues raised…

Regarding the point that the PD, I, should be blogging about the armed robberies. Well, maybe I should blog about those but I also maintain a small portion of the City’s website that is called Law Enforcement Updates. This can be located by going to www.wauwatosa.net, clicking on the “News” icon on the red tool bar near the top of the page. On there, every 7 to 10 days minimum, I do update crimes or trends. But still, it may be appropriate for me to blog that here as well; something I will look into.

Also, it should be noted that if a reader goes back to read all that I have blogged since I started; I have pointed out crime trends and also discussed ways to prevent crime and how to lower our chances of becoming the victim of a crime. So, when the time allows dig deep into my blogging archive. Further, in each of my posts my email is linked so that I can be contacted with concerns or thoughts, some of my blogs come right out and invite you to comment.

Armed robbery is a serious crime and is not taken lightly. I completely understand the frustration having been the victim of an armed robbery nearly 30 years ago. But rest assured, this department is working hard to solve those crimes, as hard as we work to solve every crime reported to us. No one wants those kinds of things happening in this City. All of us, citizens and City officials alike are always working hard to prevent crime. There is no cure all, no magic wand. But there are alert citizens, and the police department needs the alert citizens to trust their hunches, their uneasy feelings and call us when it is appropriate. I did write a blog not too long ago about what should be considered suspicious and when it is appropriate to call the police, I urge everyone to either read or re-read that blog.

Maybe “Swamp Gas” made the most valid point, one I already touched on in this blog. Let me decipher it for you non-turkey hunters. The more of us that are heads up and aware, the harder it is for the “Bad Guys” to get away with committing a crime. Just this evening an alert citizen called in a possible auto theft in progress. As a result, only several minutes later some suspects were apprehended in the alleged auto theft.

And to end this blog, Tosa is a great city, a safe city, a city with so much to offer its residents. Tosa has some of the finest services around; making it a highly sought after place to live and work. There is room for improvement and I know that our elected and appointed leaders are working daily to make those improvements.

So, your comments and concerns regarding my blog are welcome. I will clear my email box for the anticipated flood of incoming notes.

Respectfully,

Officer Don Semega

P.S. Internet safety is a real issue and a real concern.

The internet has evolved into a great tool for everyday life, learning and entertainment. But, it also has some pitfalls that anyone can fall into. As such I would like to outline some internet safety points for consideration.

• Never allow a minor child to be on the internet without direct and full time supervision. This means that the computer should be kept in a common area of the home and an adult should be able to see the screen at all times.

• Have a filter or screening software installed to try to prevent unwanted sites from popping up.

• Make sure you have all of your child’s passwords for any email, social sites or chat rooms they may belong to.

• Maintain your own identity, unknown to your child, so that you can check up on them that way as well.

• Every chat system has a way of preserving or archiving all communications, make sure that function is turned on.

• Teach your child not to give out any personal information including phone numbers, addresses, school names, school clubs, sports, driver’s license number or other identifying numbers.

• Teach your child to come to you and report anything scary or uncomfortable that they may witness on the internet.

• Teach your children that it is never okay to meet anyone face to face that they may have met on the internet.

• Encourage your children to use false names and never post or share pictures of themselves.

These are but a few items to think about, keep in mind that your best tool is your brain and parental instinct. For further information I recommend visiting the following sites:

www.ncpc.org
www.iSafe.org
www.netsmartz.org

You can also do a search for “Internet Safety” and find a wide array of other helpful sites. Good luck and safe surfing.