Crime Perspective & Preparation
Recently I had an opportunity to look at crime in our area from an outsider’s perspective. I received a call from someone looking to move here and, as part of their due diligence, they wondered what the crime situation was like.
We had a bit of a discussion after which I sent them the latest fanout of Mountie Moments that covered the last 4-5 weeks. In reviewing the Mountie Moments crime statistics, and from my recollections of the past few years, we do have property crimes, mostly theft. There are also phone scams and fraud, but these are ubiquitous no matter where you live, rural or urban.
However, crimes against persons are quite rare. I’m referring to incidences of assault, personal robbery, car jackings, and murder. So, in that sense, your personal safety is relatively secure. This is especially so if you follow the recommendations of both Kerry Sauvé (HCRCWA special speaker), and Cade Courtley in the Navy Seal Survival guide I wrote about last month.
Now, as it always seems to be the case, as I write this on the weekend of May 15 there were two incidences of personal “attacks” reported in the news. Both were in Rocky View County. One was of a homeowner in the Uplands Ridge area who returned home and interrupted an apparent Break & Enter. He was confronted by a masked individual who brandished a firearm and forced the homeowner to the ground. The victim complied and the intruder fled.
One of the practices that you should definitely being employing is to be more aware of your surroundings. I believe this skill will become more important over time as the stresses on society increase so practice it. If you are like me, you won’t always remember to look around, but when you do, take the opportunity to practice situational awareness. Hopefully over time it will become a habit. Remember don’t look for stereotypes, look for suspicious behaviour, or in this case, a suspicious scenario.
The news article did not get into much detail so I don’t know the particulars, but if the homeowner came home and saw potential evidence of a B&E (strange vehicle in driveway, door open, window broken etc.), one of his first reactions should have been to call 911 or the local RCMP detachment. The RCMP have said many times if you call, they will respond – as they’ve said, “It’s their job!”
The second incident was a verbal altercation between two individuals. Eventually one of them grabbed a gun
and shot the other person in the leg. The shooter then fled but returned later to turn himself into the police. Again, the article was short on details so I’m not sure what could have been done in this case. I don’t know what the altercation was about – it might have been frivolous, or it might have been more significant (eg molesting/ harming a family member). In the heat of an argument, anything can happen a la Ron Burgundy in the Anchorman “Boy, that escalated quickly”.
Another practice you should be starting to employ if you are serious about your safety, is to consider and preplay in your mind what you would/should do when faced with a particular situation. Navy SEAL Cade Courtley went into some detail about this concept. Of course, if you are a Navy SEAL vs a normal homeowner you have much more incentive to practice this mental preparation as you are putting yourself in harm’s way. Nevertheless, there are certainly situations you should preplay so that you are mentally prepared if the situation arises.
Using the above two examples, you should preplay these situations in advance so that you will know how to react and what to do before you get into the situation instead of having to deal with things on the fly. Employ them as a Defensive Living strategy much akin to a Defensive Driving strategy. It’s probably unreasonable to preplay every possible scenario in your mind and develop a plan for each one. However, I believe the coming-home-to- an intruder situation (or being home) is one that I think you should spend some time on and develop a plan. We practice fire drills and it’s the same idea. All the better if you can actually act out what you (and your family) would do, like actually performing the fire drill you did at school or work.
I have personally thought about what I would do in a coming-home-to-an-intruder/being-at-home situation. I haven’t completed fleshing out the plan completely nor done a “fire drill” regarding the situation yet, but I’m working through the exercise. It can be kind of fun, or at least rewarding to know you have a prudent plan to deal with a negative situation. It will give you confidence, and confidence itself is a proven personal crime prevention strategy.
Dave Schroeder
HCRCWA Board Member
