Practitioner Hightlights Blog

Since 1990, the ISCPP has presented the ICPS Curriculum for a very reasonable rate of $160 for non-members, $110 for members, and $55 to alumni who wish to purchase the current edition.  We prided ourselves in shipping the curriculum anywhere in the world for these low rates. 

  In February, 2014, the US Postal Service increased the cost of shipping by US Priority and Global Priority Mail.  We now have to pay $15 to send the curriculum to the USA and $60 to send it any other country.  

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For those of you unfamiliar with Region III, we are made up of 13 western and Midwestern US states from Texas to Minnesota.  All but a few of those states have inactive crime prevention associations and it is my goal to avail ISCPP training and membership to crime prevention practitioners in each of the region’s states while I am serving as region 3’s director.

        A couple of exciting things are happening in Texas.  As America’s aging population continues to grow exponentially, criminologists are looking more specifically at the elderly as an important demographic.  Law enforcement will take on an increasing role in responding to calls for service and many of those calls will include people with diminished capacity suffering from all forms of dementia and/or Alzheimer’s disease.

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      Access.  Knowledge about bombs and terror has proliferated to a point that virtually any terrorist or criminal can easily acquire the information to build anything from a pipe bomb to a nuclear bomb, or develop killer toxins to carry out their particular transgressions.  Timothy McVeigh, who blew up the Oklahoma City Courthouse, stated in an interview shortly after his arrest, that he picked the courthouse because ‘it was more architecturally vulnerable”. Who would have thought that a rental truck and a load of manure could be so deadly? What can the public and government agencies do to be effective in diminishing the threats and losses to persons, information, and property?  How do you reduce the opportunity for and fear of crime in the built environment and improve the quality of life?  The answer: Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED).  This article addresses how to reduce the threats and vulnerabilities in the built environment by changing how we design and use space. READ MORE

Hello ISCPP Members!

        At this writing, my thoughts are taken back to the year 2008; a year when the United States financial crisis was at its worst.  Many companies and law enforcement agencies were forced into budget cuts that drastically reduced staffing and programs such as crime prevention were significantly reduced if not eliminated.

        After three years of limping along with reduced security and almost no crime prevention efforts, it was discovered that those cutbacks and eliminations didn't actually save any money.  Effective crime prevention is all about being proactive not reactive.   As a result, the ISCPP has received more requests than ever, both nationally and internationally, for the ICPS training. READ MORE

MICROCHIPPING YOUR PROPERTY

        GPS tracking in cell phones, tablets and laptops has been successfully used to find and retrieve property.  Imagine being able to GPS track any item?

        That’s the idea behind UK crime prevention company “It’s Mine Technology.”  The company has a microchip the size of a single grain of rice that can be inserted into items such as clothing, bags, briefcase, or anything of value to a particular person. 

A starter kit costs £ 12.99 ($22.22 US) and additional chips are £11.99 ($19.59 US).  READ MORE

Jamaica:  The Government says more than 500 representatives of a number of groups are expected to participate in a violence prevention forum scheduled in Kingston.

Dudley, U.K.: Pensioners offered chance to shop for crime prevention tips.  Pensioners are being offered a chance to shop for tips on how to outwit con artists. READ MORE

Our first thought of public art might be a statute or a mural in our town center. It could be a strange looking sculpture that the high school art department placed in the neighborhood park. With no thought of placement, some town leaders may feel that just by supporting an art program they have reached out and satisfied a sector of our community that wants a program. As a Crime Prevention Specialist you must first understand what public art is and how you can use it as part of your crime prevention program.

By definition public art is “works of art in any media that have been planned and executed with the specific intention of being sited or staged in the physical public domain, usually outside and accessible to all.” Notice the specific intention of being placed in the physical domain or in public space. So, how can you use your public art program as deterrence to criminal activity? Here are a 

couple of strategies.

·    Public art should contribute to city life and people's use of public places. Public art is most effective when it is incorporated, as a design strategy, into the planning of public spaces from the outset and acts as a catalyst for generating activity. READ MORE

MEMBER PROFILES

With the new member’s only area the integration of members services, the ISCPP is finally able to give its members control over the information they are submitting and allowing for self-updates of information. Everything from your name and address to your email is able to be modified, you are no longer required to send emails to our admin team to update your information. You can additionally select what information can be viewed by other members in the privacy settings or upload and create a photo album to show off some of your work.  READ MORE

Between November 27 and December 15, 2013, the USA retail giant Target stores confirmed that “a massive data violation”¹ involving up to 40 million credit card accounts. ¹  The breach involved the theft of information from the magnetic strip on the credit cards of shoppers at Target across the USA. The Kim Komando website reported the actual number of credit card accounts compromised numbered 70 million. ²

        Magnetic strips were invented during World War Two and first used on credit cards in 1970 by IBM ³. When it was invented, it was revolutionary!  It allowed users to carry credit card information on a strip so thin that it could be adhered to the back of a credit card.  The reader that could access the information with a swipe was state of the art in the 1970’s and 1980’s. 

Compare any other area of financial security today that is still using technology developed during world war two and perfected in 1970?  Imagine an anti-virus program that only protects against the viruses developed prior to 1990.  Or a Firewall program that couldn’t stop intrusions created after 2000.  Someone using software that was so outdated in today’s world would know it was a matter of time before hackers would access the computer and compromise the information on the computer.  We are using the technology of cassette tapes and eight-track players to protect our credit cards in 2014. READ MORE