A recent published report declared that schools in Swindon have seen a horrific increase in crime. Worringly, the report states that reported crime in Swindon schools has risen by around 400% in the last four years. The report, which was obtained by the ‘Swindon Advertiser‘ through a Freedom of Information request, states that in 2010 the local Police had to respond to 149 crimes, compared with just 30 in 2007. Theft, violence and sexual offences were just a few of the crimes outlined in the report (source – opens in new window).

This is by no means an isolated area as there are schools all over the British Isles that are experiencing everything from drug misuse, racial hatred, knife crime and arson. It begs the question, “Where has it all went wrong?”

Do we look at the way we parent our children when they are in our care? Is television, gaming and the internet to blame? Do we question the way schools train their staff to cope with the modern demands of schooling our kids? Is our schooling system on the brink of anarchy? Well, the short answer to that is – No it isn’t!

Peer pressure obviously plays a big part in school crimes. Which is why it’s imperative that certain security measures are put in place to help prevent crime from happening in the first place.

At Crime Prevention Products we can supply a variety of security devices such as personal protection alarms which will alert staff and pupils that someone is in distress, Property Marking kits to help the Police identify and trace stolen property and return the items to the rightful owner, CCTV camera systems which will video and store captured images in high-definition making it easier to identify culprits and Handheld Metal Detectors which will insure that no offensive weapons are brought past the school gates.

Schools are, for the majority of kids, safe and happy environments. It’s a very small minority of pupils who carry out yobbish behaviour with little respect for others – by taking and implementing proper security methods, those who are intent of carrying out serious crime in our schools will soon be taught a very hard lesson indeed.

However, many users of Social Networking sites are naive to secure the information they post to their profiles. Making it easy for cyber criminals to scrape personal details for their own uses. Another trick that happens on sites such as Facebook is unsuspecting users clicking on harmless looking links that claim ‘they’ll show you who is looking at your profile’. Fact is, most of these links want access to your profile details, their called Facebook Worms and their sole intention is to infect a persons personal computer with malware. The link then posts a message to your profile telling others to perform the same task you just undertook and so the Worm spreads, collecting data as it goes.

There are sites out there that will help protect you if you’re unsure about clicking on a link – even if that link has been shortened by URl shortening services such as bit.ly etc.. One such site is the AVG Threat Labs (www.avgthreatlabs.com/sitereports) that allows you to enter a websites address and instantly see if that site is safe to browse…

Remember, when we talk of the term cyber crime we are not just talking of large multi national companies that deal in millions of pounds, it refers to any crime that involves a computer and a network. With 500+ million people now activily posting their details onto social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, You Tube or Twitter, people have to be aware that they could be leaving not only their computers open to cyber criminals but their homes and businesses as well.

Caravan theft is big business and it won’t take long for a group of professional criminals to notice your unprotected pride and joy waiting to be stolen from your own front drive.

Securing and protecting you caravan doesn’t have to be a costly purchase, which is why we at Crime Prevention Products have a range of products that halt thieves from simply driving off with your pride & joy and leaving you thousands of pounds out of pocket.

The number of people now using social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook and Bebo has increased to well over two billion people worldwide, and, with some encouraging people to install applications such as games, fun surveys and chat platforms this has now become the perfect vector for cyber-criminals to gain entry to information within your computer. So as you sit in your home chatting to your mates on any number of social networking sites, cyber criminals are busy hacking into your personal information. However its not just in chat and game platforms, Social sites such as Twitter which encourage the use of shortened URLs with services such as tinyurl.com and bit.ly which again makes it easier to mask the true identity of the URL that you are asked to click.

Many of these cyber criminals will hope to take advantage of the amount of younger people that are accessing social networking sites, hoping that inexperience will cause them to access infected sites. Once your computer has been compromised by malicious software (malware), which may include spyware, viruses or Trojan Horses, all of these will infect your computer causing vast damage and will send your personal information back to its creator.

Remember if a website looks suspicious or you are not sure of it keep away from it.

Unbelievable, a new site has sprung up recently called PleaseRobMe.com, where it claims to reveal the location of empty homes based on what people post online. The full article from the BBC can be found here : source.

Earlier this month Greater Manchester launched its application on crime, when you sign up you will be alerted to crimes that have taken place in your area. They are hoping that with the amount of youths visiting the social networking site, they will see the crimes as they are posted, and also that some of the opportunistic thieves will ‘brag’ about theirs.

Greater Manchester Police are hoping that as the application ‘spreads’ they will manage to get their anti crime message across better than any police operation. The Assistant Chief Constable Rob Taylor says “This application allows Greater Manchester Police to further raise awareness of incidents taking place in our local
communities” in its first weeks on the net they already have 300 people that have added the application, and over 160 use it regularly.

If this application is successful would it be worth trying it in all our major towns and cities?

On a positive note, there was a significant reduction in car park car crime. Some towns also benefited, Henley on Thames used the CCTV in 117 incidents. Mrs Dorothy Brown, the town cabinet member for community safety says that “CCTV is helping us tackle crime and anti-social behaviour, they also help to keep our street crime free and safe”.

Using CCTV in your home these days is a simple and cheap solution to protect your property. CCTV for the home is relatively easy to install, the systems can be used to record what’s going on outside your home and keep an eye on your car or garden shed. Be careful to point your CCTV at your own property, you can get prosecuted if you point it elsewhere as you may be accused of spying, to be on the safe side check with your provider or local Police if you are unsure.

Britain might be the CCTV Capital of the World but if CCTV cameras are protecting our children, homes and possessions then this should be seen as a positive statement instead of being critical towards today’s modern society.

Record crowds are set to flock into Washington D.C, an estimated 2 million people are expected. Concerns over the size of the crowds have raised public safety concerns. The Police will have over 8,000 officers in and around the City on the day of inauguration. Thousands of CCTV Systems will be fed live into a multi-agency command center.

Unprecedented security has also seen the Department of Homeland Security elevate the risk of a threat to the Nation to yellow on its colour-coded scale. With Obama about to inherit Bush’s legacy it’s not going to be an easy ride for him. Tuesday, the 20th of January, 2009, is going to be a day we will never forget.