Things are beginning to warm up and spring is finally showing grass and flowers. Once again we can take a breath and look forward to walking around in shirt sleeves and not having to wear snow shoes to walk thru the back yard.
Unfortunately, crime does not seem to take a day off no matter what the weather. We have seen several shootings in Billings, where I live as well as the myriads of property crime that accompany drug abuse and unhappy people.
I am once again working on Fraud programs across the state and there is no lack of scams that people fall victim to to the tune of billions of dollars per year. I have been lucky recently to be a part of a radio fraud outreach on Northwest Broadcasting;'s Voices of Montana. If you are interested in tuning in check out your nearest Northwest Broadcasting station and tune in the First Friday of each month at 9 am. I am often accompanied by others on the show as well as with NB's host for Voices of Montana. So far additional guest's included Montana's Attorney General Tim Fox and I did a short spot after my spot with Montana Congressman Greg Gianforte. On May 3, the guest will be Tina Kondo who is the Assistant Regional Director for the Seattle Region of the Federal Trade Commission. We will be talking about Do Not Call and Robo Calls, so it should be an interesting combination.
I'm happy to say there is a lot of crime prevention going on in Montana, although it's not always branded that. As you can see on the events page we will be having another Crime Prevention Conference in September supported by the Montana Board of Crime Control. Stay tuned for more information and check out the Board of Crime Control web site for further information regarding dates and content.
My wife and I are planning on going to the International CPTED Conference in late August in Cancun, Mexico. The agenda is looking full and, as usual, I enjoy meeting friends I've made going to the conference since 1996 when it was in Kissimme, FL. There are usually people from 15-20 countries who share the passion for planning their communities in a way that makes them safer for people who live, work and visit there.
Pay attention to the webinar page as there are interesting things on the internet that provide training when training budgets are short.
Alex E. Ward, CPP
Board Certified in Security Management (American Society for Industrial Security)
MCPA in conjunction with the Yellowstone County DUI Task Force and Q2 produced these DUI PSA's. They paint a sad picture of DUI in Montana and have been viewed on television as well as on you tube. This is one way we can educate folks as to things they need to know about crime.
