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Understanding Opportunity

In our last post, we touched on Motive and Means and the role they play in criminal activity.

We also pointed out there is virtually nothing you can do to affect a criminal’s Motives and relatively little you can do to limit a criminal’s Means to break into your house or vehicle.

Opportunity – the third part of the triad – is one that you most definitely control.

In a criminal’s mind, an ideal opportunity has 3 components: 1., Time to perform his activity, 2., relatively low Risk of being caught and 3., high Return on his/her efforts.

Ultimately, a thief will look for the easiest target to hit with the lowest risk of being caught. You may not be able to make your entire neighbourhood safer, but you can make your home much less attractive an opportunity.

Time

The more time a burglar feels he has to enter and go through your house, the more likely your home will be a target.

He needs time to pick a lock on one of your exterior doors. He needs time to jimmy a window.

Once he’s inside, he needs time to find and identify the goods he wants to steal, pack them up and leave your home with them.

Your best defense against a burglar is to not give him time to do his thing.

Value

What a criminal considers valuable depends, to a certain extent, on his motives.

If it is a drug addict or casual thief looking for a source of cash, it will be cash he can find or anything he thinks he can quickly convert into cash. This probably includes things like TVs, computers or jewelry he can pawn or sell.

If it’s a professional burglar, it could mean artwork, coin collections and jewelry. It could also include your car.

Risk

To a criminal, risk most often means the chance of being caught. Secondarily, it could mean the risk of getting hurt in the commission of a crime – for example, falling from a roof while trying to enter or exist a residence.

Visibility is one risk factor. The risk of being caught increases the more a criminal is likely to be seen or observed attempting to enter or leave your home. If he feels he can work unobserved for enough time to enter your home, your home is probably a target.

Noise is another risk factor. Noise draws attention from people who may not be able see the criminal working. The sound of breaking glass or a dog barking can alert neighbours to his actions.

The other risk factor is danger. Climbing up the outside of an apartment building poses a greater risk of falling than climbing in a ground floor or basement window. The average criminal doesn’t want to get hurt on the job.

Where Do We Go From Here?

So far, we’ve identified that your risk of being a target of crime is related to the criminal’s motives, the available means to commit a crime and the perceived opportunity your house or car or business represents.

We’ve also learned that Opportunity is the one aspect of a crime that we have the most power to control.

Future posts will discuss different types of crime and what you can do to prevent them.

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MOTIVE + MEANS + OPPORTUNITY = CRIME

In our first LBNA Community Safety Survey, property crime emerged as the second-highest concern among Long Branch residents.

Imagine coming home at night and finding it looking like the above photo.

When you’ve been the victim of property crime, it’s also usually accompanied by a feeling of violation. Your personal space has been breached by someone. Items that have emotional value to you have been taken away or damaged by someone.

It will never be possible to eliminate the threat of property crime, but it IS possible to reduce the risk of becoming a victim of property crime.

An important step towards reducing that risk is to understand how criminals think.

Most police services – including the Toronto Police Service – train their officers on a triad of risk factors that are behind most crimes. The model consists of 3 factors: Motive, Means and Opportunity.

MOTIVE

Motive is simply the reason why a criminal perpetrates a crime.

It could be any of a number of things: to fuel a drug habit, to get money, the thrill or a personal vendetta, to name just a few.

Of the three underlying factors for crime, Motive is not something we, as homeowners or tenants, can influence, let alone control. We just have to accept that and work on the other two factors.

MEANS

Means deals with how the criminal commits his crime.

Means can include the tools needed to commit the crime, specialized knowledge or skills…..

Let’s look at two examples to better understand this.

Let’s say the means of entering a home or business is by picking the lock on the door. There are lock-picking tools burglars can acquire that enable them to manipulate the tumblers on a lock so they can open it. The burglar needs the knowledge of how to use these tools and the skill to actually open the lock quickly.

There’s probably nothing you can do to prevent the burglar from acquiring or using these tools.

For our second example, suppose the means of entering the home was by gaining access through a window on the second floor of the house. One way to access the second floor could be by using a ladder to climb up to the window. Another could be by climbing up a trellis or a railing of some kind.

This is where you, as a homeowner or tenant, can influence your risk of being victimized.

While our burglar using a ladder could bring the ladder with him (or her), it would be very obvious to someone looking out their window or passing by in a car.

It’s more likely the thief would try to use a ladder he found on your property. Or, as we suggested, he could try climbing up a trellis or railing or stand on recycling or garbage bins to be able to reach the second floor.

If you keep your ladder locked up – ideally in a locked garage or shed – it makes it much more difficult for a burglar to be able to use it.

OPPORTUNITY

The factor over which you have the most control is opportunity. But we’re going to save that for another post. Watch for it!

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Community Safety Roundtable

Our MPP, Christine Hogarth, is organizing a roundtable discussion on Community Safety on Friday, November 27th from 3:30 to 4:30 pm. This will be a Zoom event, so you will need to pre-register to get an invitation and link to join the event.

November is Community Safety Month and we all have a role to play in keeping our communities safe.

Community Safety Month aims to promote awareness about a broad range of safety matters, including crime prevention, personal safety, and safe work practices and staying safe during an emergency.

Representatives from Toronto Police Service 22 Division will be panelists on this Zoom call. They have come up with numerous tips to help keep you safe! These tips cover a wide variety of topics from home security to business safety, youth safety to senior safety and much more.

To RSVP for the event, please click on the link below: https://www.christinehogarthmpp.ca/community_safety_roundtable

And watch this blog to get more safety tips and suggestions.

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Carbon Monoxide: A Silent Killer

As we turn on our furnaces for the Fall and Winter, it’s time to think about the potential threat posed by carbon monoxide.

What is Carbon Monoxide?

Carbon monoxide (chemical symbol: CO) is a colourless, odourless gas that is formed by incomplete combustion of fuels such as wood, charcoal and natural gas. It is toxic because, when it enters our bloodstream, it robs the blood of its ability to carry oxygen to our organs and muscles.

How is it formed?

Most of us associate carbon monoxide with automobile exhaust, but that’s not the only source.

Carbon monoxide is formed by incomplete combustion of wood, charcoal or natural gas. Improperly ventilated appliances and engines, particularly in a tightly sealed or enclosed space, may allow carbon monoxide to accumulate to dangerous levels.

Your furnace, water heater, stove, space heaters, fireplace, woodstove, charcoal grill, and dryer can be sources of CO, especially if they are gas-powered, not in good working condition or have been installed without proper ventilation.

Vehicle exhaust fumes from attached garages also can become CO hazards – even if the garage door is open.

Using kerosene heaters or charcoal grills indoors, or running a car in a garage can cause CO levels to rise high enough to result in death or serious illness.

More modern housing construction techniques have made carbon monoxide even more of a threat. Doors and windows in homes are more tightly sealed to prevent drafts from the outside. But this also reduces the amount of fresh air – and oxygen – entering your house. It’s especially a problem in winter, when we have windows closed for the season.

Your home

  • Never use a cooking device—an oven, grill, or camp stove—to heat your home.
  • If you have a wood-burning fireplace, always make sure the damper is open when the fire is going, to allow CO to go up the chimney with other combustion products. When you put out your fire, make sure it is out, with no active coals. And leave the damper open for a while after putting the fire out to ensure CO doesn’t stay in the house.
  • If you have a fireplace, have your chimney cleaned every few years. Blocked flues keep CO from escaping your home and buildup of creosote (a tarry byproduct of burning wood) can cause chimney fires.
  • Install a carbon monoxide alarm on each level of your home as your first line of defense. CO detectors are most effective when used in conjunction with preventive maintenance.
  • Replace old or faulty central heating and air conditioning units with new and improved models.
  • Make sure any heating and air conditioning system is installed by trained professionals with proper ventilation.
  • Maintain your heating and air conditioning system regularly, usually just before each big change of season.

Your garage

  • It might seem like a time-saver to run your car in the garage before a long commute, especially on a cold winter’s morning. But the emissions from your vehicle can fill your garage with carbon monoxide even if the garage door is open.
  • Always back your car out of the garage to let it warm up. Never leave it running in the confined space of a garage, particularly if the garage is attached to the home.
  • Never run lawnmowers, snowblowers, generators or other gas-powered engines in confined areas like garages or sheds.

Your car

  • Never dismiss a fender bender as something you’ll get checked later. Get your exhaust system checked by a mechanic right away. Even minor collisions can cause breaks in your car’s exhaust system, allowing CO to enter into your passenger area.
  • If you get stuck in deep snow by the side of the road and decide to stay in your car and keep warm with your engine running, be sure to clear snow away from your exhaust pipe. A blocked exhaust pipe can cause CO to back up into your passenger area.

Preventing Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

Carbon monoxide detectors are the fastest way to prevent CO poisoning. You can install a carbon monoxide detector (or multiple detectors) in your home. They work much like your fire or smoke alarm by sounding a siren when they detect carbon monoxide.

How do carbon monoxide detectors work?

Carbon monoxide detectors sound an alarm when they sense a certain amount of carbon monoxide over time. Different sensors set off different types of alerts.

  • Biomimetic sensor: a gel changes color when it absorbs CO, and this color change triggers the alarm.
  • Metal oxide semiconductor: When the silica chip’s circuitry detects CO, it lowers the electrical resistance, and this change triggers the alarm.
  • Electrochemical sensor: Electrodes in a chemical solution sense changes in electrical currents when they come into contact with CO, and this change triggers the alarm.

When will my carbon monoxide detector go off?

The CO alarm sounds if your sensor detects a buildup of carbon monoxide in your home—usually before you start sensing symptoms. At lower concentrations (50 ppm), it may take up to eight hours for the alarm to go off. Higher levels (over 150 ppm) can trigger an alarm within minutes.

Act quickly when an alarm sounds because low doses over long periods can be just as dangerous as sudden exposure to carbon monoxide in ultra-high doses.

How Much CO Does It Take to Make Me Feel Sick?

Most people begin to feel the effects of carbon monoxide exposure at 70 ppm. This is why it’s important to have CO detectors since lower levels don’t bring obvious symptoms.

What kind of carbon monoxide detector should I get?

Overall, carbon monoxide detectors sense CO fast and alert you as soon as they do. But there’s a surprising amount of variety in today’s carbon monoxide sensors.

Some simple models plug into outlets or use a battery and alert you with a loud siren, like the one on your smoke detector. These models are cheap and suitable for multi-room buildings that need several units spread throughout.

Many models include sensors for both smoke and carbon monoxide. These are an easy option that you can swap out your existing smoke detectors for. They also reduce the number of sensors on your walls or ceilings.

You can also find smart models that connect with your home security system or alert you of danger through a mobile app. These models are expensive but can be a wise investment if you want extra safety for kids and pets at home.

Sensor Maintenance

No matter what type of carbon monoxide detection you have, it’s a good idea to conduct regular maintenance:

  • Test it frequently using the button on the front (once a month).5
  • Replace the batteries as often as the instructions recommend.
  • If you have a wired sensor with a battery back-up, make sure both power sources are working.
  • Replace the sensor every few years according to manufacturer guidelines (these sensors don’t last forever).

Where should I place a carbon monoxide detector?

Ensure everyone in the house can hear when an alarm goes off by placing a CO sensor in or near each of four critical locations in your home:

  1. At least one on each level – especially in the basement, where your furnace is located.
  2. Near each bedroom or sleeping space
  3. By doors that lead to attached garages
  4. In your garage – whether attached or not.

Bottom Line

Christine Mercado, who is the Chair of the LBNA, is also a Captain in the City of Vaughan Fire and Rescue Service and has some good advice. “Keeping your smoke and CO detectors in good working order are key to safety in the home. But don’t forget to plan and practice your escape route if your detectors go into alarm mode”

Learn More

The City of Toronto has an excellent web page about carbon monoxide detectors and the regulations associated with them.

If you are a landlord, you should check out this page because the Ontario Fire Code has specific regulations about having CO detectors in your rental property. There are fines up to $50,000 for an individual owner and $100,000 for a corporation.

If you are a tenant, visit the City’s web page to ensure your landlord has adequately provided for your safety.

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Are Your Smoke Detectors Protecting You?

The time we set our clocks back to standard time is also the time most Fire Departments suggest you replace the batteries in your smoke detectors.

Does your home have smoke detectors? If so, do you know if they’re actually working?

Most homes these days have smoke detectors. Perhaps not in every location where one should be, but usually at least one in the house.

This post is a quick overview of how to select and use smoke detectors to ensure your house and your family are protected from fires.

Technologies

There are two main types of smoke detector technology: ionization and photocell.

Ionization smoke detectors are the most common and usually least expensive of smoke detectors. They have a small amount of radioactive material (not enough to be dangerous) between two electrically charged plates, which ionizes the air and causes current to flow between the plates. When smoke enters the chamber, it disrupts the flow of ions, thus reducing the flow of current and activating the alarm

Photocell smoke detectors are less common, but more sensitive and more expensive. They work by aiming a light source into a sensing chamber at an angle away from the sensor. When smoke enters the chamber, it reflects light onto the light sensor; triggering the alarm

You can find smoke detectors that use both technologies, and these are probably the safest because one smoke detector can detect both active fires and fires that are smouldering and not yet active.

Power Source

Smoke detectors can be powered in one of two ways: battery or hard-wired.

With battery powered smoke detectors, the advantage is that they can be placed anywhere in the house.

Hard-wired smoke alarms are wired directly into your home’s electrical circuits. They are installed using a junction box in the ceiling – the same kind of box used for lights. They also can be purchased with battery backup feature so that, if your home lost power – for example due to an electrical fire – the battery would provide enough power to trigger the alarm.

Interconnect Your Smoke Alarms

Hard-wired smoke detectors can also be interconnected so that if a detector on one floor detects a fire, it can sound the alarm on all smoke detectors in the house. This can be useful if a fire were in the basement and the alarm there might not be audible in your bedroom upstairs.

When interconnected smoke alarms are installed, it is important that all of the alarms are from the same manufacturer. If the alarms are not compatible, they may not sound.

A 2009 study done in the US shows just how much interconnection improves safety.

  • When smoke alarms (interconnected or not) were on all floors, they sounded in 37% of fires and alerted occupants in 15%.
  • When smoke alarms were not on all floors, they sounded in only 4% of the fires and alerted occupants in only 2%.
  • In homes that had interconnected smoke alarms, the alarms sounded in half (53%) of the fires and alerted people in one-quarter (26%) of the fires.

Why didn’t the smoke alarms go off 100% of the time? One probable reason is that some of the smoke detectors had dead batteries. Another is that some of the alarms may have been rendered useless because they had accumulated dust and other materials that prevented the sensors from working properly.

Caring for Your Smoke Detectors

Smoke detectors are really only reliable up to 10 years from date of purchase (not just when you actually install them), so you should plan to replace them every ten years. Some detectors have a feature that sounds a brief chirp as the unit approaches the end of its useful life.

Yes, it’s a pain to have to replace smoke alarms, but they only cost about $30 and what price can you put on the safety of your home and family?

Fire Departments are right to suggest replacing the batteries every year, and the end of daylight savings time is an easy time to remember to do so. Fresh batteries help ensure your unit is going to sense a fire, should it break out.

Periodically, you should vacuum the housing for your smoke detector to ensure the vents that allow air to circulate to the sensors are clear of dust and other material. Use the drapery or upholstery attachment, which have soft bristles that can penetrate the vent holes and loosen up dust that may have accumulated.

Lastly, test your smoke alarm once a month to ensure it is working properly.

Learn More

An excellent resource to learn more about smoke detectors is the National Fire Protection Association.

The Ontario Association of Fire Chiefs has a brochure called Working
Smoke Alarms Save Lives that you can download.

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Walking on Streets with no Sidewalks

One of the things we’ve been observing during the pandemic is more people walking. It’s safer than being indoors. You get healthy low-impact exercise and it can be social as well.

When the streets have sidewalks, it’s a no-brainer. But what about when the street has no sidewalks, as on a number of streets in Long Branch?

Sign directing how to walk on a street with no sidewalks

When I was young and growing up, I lived in a neighbourhood where there were no sidewalks, and I walked to school. I was taught to always walk on the side the the road facing oncoming traffic. Common sense from Moms and teachers.

Apparently, there is something in the laws about this. According to section 179, subsection 1 of the Ontario Highway Traffic Act: 

“Where sidewalks are not provided on a highway, a pedestrian walking along the highway shall walk on the left side thereof facing oncoming traffic and, when walking along the roadway, shall walk as close to the left edge thereof as possible.”

If you are walking on the side of the road, traveling in the same direction as vehicles, it can be hard to hear them approaching. Even harder if the vehicle is a bicycle, which is usually very quiet.

When you can’t see traffic approaching you, you are not aware of imminent danger if a car has to swerve to avoid something or someone behind you.

It’s also easier to socially distance when everyone is walking in the same direction on the same side of the street.

A note to motorists and cyclists: when you are approaching someone walking on the same side of the street as you are driving and you can see their backs are turned to you, give a quick toot of the horn (or a ring of the bell on a bicycle) to warn them of your presence.

The Globe and Mail ran an article on this topic on October 30th. Same message. Click Here to read it.

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