Citizens Police Academy: Crime Prevention

Pick up the nearest magazine. Open it to a random page and look at the image for five seconds before setting it aside. 

Go on, do it now.

What did you see? How many details do you remember? Was it a man? A woman? Did he have glasses? Any scars?

Now imagine trying to remember all those details while in a stressful situation: You’ve just witnessed a bank robbery or a car accident, or perhaps you saw a peeping Tom glancing into a neighbor’s window. 

It’s tougher than you think it might be. Officer Nick Skweres said during Wednesday’s Citizen Police Academy that if 10 people witness a crime, the police would likely get 10 different descriptions of what happened.

But from that collective memory police will try to piece together the bits that will help them figure out who that suspect is, what exactly he did and where he went next. 

Students in the academy learned keeping a community safe is a collective effort during the session that focused on crime prevention.

The plays a big part in that effort, but the residents themselves also serve a critical role in protecting their neighbors.

“We cannot prevent every crime from happening,” Skweres said. “We rely on you guys. Even if we put a Chicago-sized police department in Darien, we couldn’t prevent every crime.”

There are about 220 miles of streets in Darien, which officers patrol 24 hours a day. But the four to five patrol officers on each shift can’t get to every street every day.

The people who do go to your street every day? Your neighbors.

“You have to be involved in your neighborhood,” Skweres said. “Know your neighbors’ routines.”

If a mysterious van all of sudden appears on the street, you’re more likely to know if it’s a neighbor’s out-of-town visitor or something more sinister.

When you suspect something untoward is going on, it’s time to get the police involved — and the sooner you call, the better. If police get there quickly, they’re more likely to catch a suspect.

Skweres offered these tips for reporting a crime:

• Stay calm. The longer it takes you to explain what happened, the longer it will take for police to get there.
• Give the most important information first. Remember the six basic elements of storytelling: who, what, when, where, why and how. Better yet, take a picture with your cell phone camera.
• Start from the top. Work down from the hair to the toes when describing a suspect.
• Keep it simple. Use basic terminology and colors — nothing fancy like aquamarine, Skweres said, because the more complicated the word, the more subjective the interpretation becomes.
• Do not guess. If you don’t know something for sure, don’t say it.