Community Roll Call

If you are going to be leaving town for a vacation of a few days or more please follow these tips to help keep your home safe and secure:

• Notify a trusted neighbor of your trip and also leave a key for them.
• Make sure the mail and newspapers are stopped or someone is picking them up for you.
• Put various lamps on timers throughout the house.
• Put talk radio on a timer to provide the sound of voices in your house.
• Make sure lawn mowing is taken care of if you are away more than 5 days.
• Install low voltage or solar landscaping all around your house that will operate during the hours of darkness.
• Install photo electric cells on your outdoor lighting around doors and windows so that they come on during hours of darkness.
• Make sure all doors and windows are locked, including those on garages and garden sheds.
• Notify the Police Department of your trip and at a minimum give them the following information:
• Name and phone number of a keyholder.
• The dates you will be away.
• What vehicles are okay to be in your driveway while you are away.
• Name of who may be checking on things in and around your house.
• A phone number to contact you in case of an emergency.

If you follow these simple tips you will make it more difficult to allow the bad guys the opportunity to turn you into a victim. This in turn should allow you some peace of mind while you are away unwinding and decompressing.

As always these items are merely suggestions and all of the ideas may not work for you. There is also no guarantee that following any or all of these steps will prevent you from becoming a victim.

1. Be a Wauwatosa resident or own a business, work for a business or own real estate in the City of Wauwatosa.
2. Be at least 18 years of age.
3. Be of good moral character.
4. Submit to a brief background investigation

Just a quick reminder since good biking weather has finally arrived, and that is to secure all bikes when they are not under the actual physical control of someone. By securing I mean locking with a chain or cable through the wheels and frame to a sturdy and secure object or bike rack, locking it in a shed or garage or bringing it into the house. It only takes a few seconds for someone to take your unlocked bike and you may never see it again.

Wauwatosa Ordinance 11.48.090 states that it is illegal to operate an unregisterd bike in the City of Wauwatosa and that it has to be licensed in Wauwatosa or by another jurisdiction.

Wauwatosa Ordinance 11.48.100 states that every Wauwatosa citizen should register their bike with the police department. This is a free service where all of the bike's information is gathered for entry into a data base and a non expiring license is issued and affixed to the bike. Besides registering at the police department you can also register at any Wauwatosa fire station and at Johnson's Cycle and Fitness located at 6916 West North Ave in Wauwatosa.

Besides being a requirement to register, should your bike be stolen, having it registered will increase the chances of it being returned.