Well, what can one poor ole retired cop on fixed income say about the performance of Officer Sal down at the Inner Harbor interacting with and messing with the teenage skateboarder. For sure, it makes police in general look bad, and especially for us Baltimore Police retirees out here in the mean, real world trying to make a living-whether by getting or keeping full or part time jobs or running small businesses.
Buz has already learned that some higher education institutions do not want ex-police on their campus security forces (with exceptions). And in any case it does not seem to be good public relations.
Buz had a similar, but less violent, run-in with Sal when I was a supervisor on the evening shift in security at a famous Baltimore institution. Sal was working in uniform off duty for the organization. I could not raise him on the radio for more than an hour. When I finally met him he was arrogant, nasty, and rude--just like on the video. He refused my request to check a building, and said he didn't care if he couldn't be radioed, and he could care less about me even though I was the supervisor on duty. He then blew cigar smoke in my face while he smirked. He said that if I had a problem with him, I should take it up with the organization, since he works for the organization, not for me.
My boss didn't want to do anything, even though Sal had acted the same way with him a year before. He didn't want to offend Sal or any of the other police that were working there--he needed their guns. (See my earlier blog post.) It's a shame when many businesses and schools in Baltimore feel they need the hired guns of the BPD because of the nature of the crime in the city. Thus, he had to be coddled, not fired. I left the organization a couple of weeks later. I learned yesterday that Sal is no longer there.
Poor Sal. I hope he learns to deal with his anger and hate.
I assure the readers that the vast, overwhelming majority of police try to do the right thing most of the time. Yeah, sometimes some of them lose it with suspects, but it's a stressful job and we have to view that in the context of that compassion without tolerating behavior which was too much. Sal had several times when he could have walked away, but kept coming back to have a few more words to say.
I was taught that police really cannot put hands on people with certain minor exceptions unless you're arresting them. And I guess Sal missed that training. I read that he later calmed down and did talk to the kid's mom and gave the skateboard back.
I see, because of this video, a lot of anti-police venom coming out on the web. Sheesh. OK, it looks kinda bad, folks. But, ya know, the police are all we've got. Yeah, there'll always be nasty ones, but most are there for the job and want to do it in a righteous manner. If we did not have police, the criminals would really take over the city--more than they do already. I guess Sal was trying to make the Inner Harbor safe for us elderly retired people to walk around there.
The city is missing the boat with this. Tourists and locals too should get in on it. We could have bus tours following Sal around and watching and photographing his furnishing us with a safer city! All you bums, drunks, punks, skateboarders, artists, and other ne'er do wells watch out. It's gotta be at least as good as the Wire for Baltimore, or Homicide, or the Corner. Where's David Simon when we need him?!
Friday, February 15, 2008
Friday, February 8, 2008
Guns on Campus
Some higher education campuses are moving toward an armed security force, at least partly as a result of the Virginia Tech shootings. Nice solution to the problem, but it did not help at Virginia Tech which had a sworn and armed campus police force. As in most of these campus shooting rampages, the suspect took his own life before police arrived on the scene.
Buz thinks most schools would be better off, and save a lot of money, if they did not introduce firearms to their security force. The cost and the risks are enormous--unless you are in a high crime area, and have a fairly large number of officers working as backup.
On the other hand, there are schools which should have armed police officers and don't. They don't because of philosphical objections or want to play the game of using off-duty police officers--so any liability gets thrown on the local jurisdiction where the officer is employed.
Buz thinks most schools would be better off, and save a lot of money, if they did not introduce firearms to their security force. The cost and the risks are enormous--unless you are in a high crime area, and have a fairly large number of officers working as backup.
On the other hand, there are schools which should have armed police officers and don't. They don't because of philosphical objections or want to play the game of using off-duty police officers--so any liability gets thrown on the local jurisdiction where the officer is employed.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Contract security guard companies
Considering using a contract security guard company for your business or organization? Buz, the security consultant, thinks, in light of the suspicion surrounding burglaries at the area's private schools, there are:
Some questions you should ask your security guard company (before you get one or of the one you have):
1.Do you do background checks on your guards, even if they come to you with a valid clearance card?
2.After you hire, do you ever check again? When? How often?
3.What are your standards for rejection, if any?
4.Do you do drug testing on your guards? Before hire? (Of course, they'll say. Buz recently ran into a security guard who is stationed at a school in the city. He said he's never had a drug test after working for them for more than 15 years.) Periodically? Randomly? For cause?
5.Do you pay your guards a living wage (Huh? What's that? Buz recently coached a woman who got a job as a security guard at a contract guard agency in Baltimore. They started her at $6.75 an hour. Think it might be a little easy to pay her a few bucks to look the other way? Would you really want anyone watching your assets or people who gets paid only $6.75/hour?)
6.What are your guards trained in? Anything? Or are they just bodies, a commodity, like say paper, or wood or electric.
7.Will you give me enough info on the guards proposed for my site to do my own background check if I wish? (social security number, date of birth, say)
8.If I don't want a particular guard for any reason (or no reason), can a different one be provided?
9.What are your guards' rules of engagement, say, if a fight breaks out?
10.When can they use their weapons (if they have any).
See how, if at all, they answer these questions.
Buz wonders if anybody out there has had any praise or criticisms for guards you may have run into.
Some questions you should ask your security guard company (before you get one or of the one you have):
1.Do you do background checks on your guards, even if they come to you with a valid clearance card?
2.After you hire, do you ever check again? When? How often?
3.What are your standards for rejection, if any?
4.Do you do drug testing on your guards? Before hire? (Of course, they'll say. Buz recently ran into a security guard who is stationed at a school in the city. He said he's never had a drug test after working for them for more than 15 years.) Periodically? Randomly? For cause?
5.Do you pay your guards a living wage (Huh? What's that? Buz recently coached a woman who got a job as a security guard at a contract guard agency in Baltimore. They started her at $6.75 an hour. Think it might be a little easy to pay her a few bucks to look the other way? Would you really want anyone watching your assets or people who gets paid only $6.75/hour?)
6.What are your guards trained in? Anything? Or are they just bodies, a commodity, like say paper, or wood or electric.
7.Will you give me enough info on the guards proposed for my site to do my own background check if I wish? (social security number, date of birth, say)
8.If I don't want a particular guard for any reason (or no reason), can a different one be provided?
9.What are your guards' rules of engagement, say, if a fight breaks out?
10.When can they use their weapons (if they have any).
See how, if at all, they answer these questions.
Buz wonders if anybody out there has had any praise or criticisms for guards you may have run into.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
campus safety after Virginia Tech
Many of my colleagues in the campus security community are feverishly spending money to buy various emergency notification systems, because, apparently the lessons learned from Virginia Tech, it is believed, include some kind of emergency notification system. Buz thinks that they might be useful, not so much to help in an incident such as this, but just so that the school can say they have it to defend itself in a lawsuit.
Even if such a system were in place at VT, it would not have been used because the police thought the incident was confined and under control. In fact there were officers in the dorm where the original two murders happened, but did not say anything about it to students who were entering and leaving. Besides, what would one say? Gee, we've got 2 people killed here, so watch out?! What should we do, Mr. Security!? Go to class? Go Home? Go to the dorm?
A cursory look at some of the uses of the emergency notification systems since VT show that they are only one tool of many and often are not terribly helpful.
The key component of any system such as this is: who makes the decision to send out the message and what message do they send out.
Only the largest schools, with some exceptions, want to spend the money to have skilled full-time professional-level people present or available to make the decisions quickly. Usually these incident happen very quickly and there is a sense of unbelievability and denial which accompanies it.
Even if such a system were in place at VT, it would not have been used because the police thought the incident was confined and under control. In fact there were officers in the dorm where the original two murders happened, but did not say anything about it to students who were entering and leaving. Besides, what would one say? Gee, we've got 2 people killed here, so watch out?! What should we do, Mr. Security!? Go to class? Go Home? Go to the dorm?
A cursory look at some of the uses of the emergency notification systems since VT show that they are only one tool of many and often are not terribly helpful.
The key component of any system such as this is: who makes the decision to send out the message and what message do they send out.
Only the largest schools, with some exceptions, want to spend the money to have skilled full-time professional-level people present or available to make the decisions quickly. Usually these incident happen very quickly and there is a sense of unbelievability and denial which accompanies it.
Marc Steiner and his firing
The firing of Marc Steiner reminds me of the firing a number of years ago of Davey Johnson, one of the strongest managers the Orioles ever had. He was one of the few who would get in the face of these spoiled, childish, superstar athletes and make them perform in a team-like way. However, the owner of the team, Peter Angelos, and Johnson clashed and Davey was shown the door.
I don't think the Orioles have had a winning season since.
Same thing happened in New York when Giuliani's Police Commissioner, William Bratton, became more popular than him.
Buz believes that Steiner was a truly outstanding jounalist who knew a lot of the players in the city; I'm sure that the right-wing fire-breathers on the other talk shows hated him. But he really had some great shows: his five-part series on Vietnam was very moving and enlightening, and his interview with Felicia Pearson, Snoop, was thought-provoking.
I think WYPR will go the way of the Orioles. Their big mistake, in my most humble opinion was expanding to 50, 000 watts and buying stations on the Eastern Shore and Frederick. People, listen, ain't nobody in Ocean City or Frederick gonna care about what happens in Baltimore--which they all hate and fear. People interested in listening to public radion in YPR's format don't really care what's going on in Frederick or OC, either. Management just drove up their fixed costs to satisfy the mantra that bigger is better, and missed their niche of the sophisticated urban, urbane listener. There are plenty of suburban oriented stations to cater to those audiences.
Oh, I'm sure Marc could have been a difficult fellow to handle, but he was your main, maybe only big product.
By the way, the introduction of this show the Signal, on Fridays in Marc's time slot, was the beginning of the end. This poor dumb retired guy could never figure out what they were talking about: I guess one had to be one of the Creative Alliance types to really get into it. I dunno.
By the way of crime tip: don't go walking too far north of the Creative Alliance at the Patterson at night. It's bandit country.
I don't think the Orioles have had a winning season since.
Same thing happened in New York when Giuliani's Police Commissioner, William Bratton, became more popular than him.
Buz believes that Steiner was a truly outstanding jounalist who knew a lot of the players in the city; I'm sure that the right-wing fire-breathers on the other talk shows hated him. But he really had some great shows: his five-part series on Vietnam was very moving and enlightening, and his interview with Felicia Pearson, Snoop, was thought-provoking.
I think WYPR will go the way of the Orioles. Their big mistake, in my most humble opinion was expanding to 50, 000 watts and buying stations on the Eastern Shore and Frederick. People, listen, ain't nobody in Ocean City or Frederick gonna care about what happens in Baltimore--which they all hate and fear. People interested in listening to public radion in YPR's format don't really care what's going on in Frederick or OC, either. Management just drove up their fixed costs to satisfy the mantra that bigger is better, and missed their niche of the sophisticated urban, urbane listener. There are plenty of suburban oriented stations to cater to those audiences.
Oh, I'm sure Marc could have been a difficult fellow to handle, but he was your main, maybe only big product.
By the way, the introduction of this show the Signal, on Fridays in Marc's time slot, was the beginning of the end. This poor dumb retired guy could never figure out what they were talking about: I guess one had to be one of the Creative Alliance types to really get into it. I dunno.
By the way of crime tip: don't go walking too far north of the Creative Alliance at the Patterson at night. It's bandit country.
Friday, February 1, 2008
Dan Rodricks on Ex-Offenders not getting jobs
Interesting column, Dan!
Truly, you are doing God's work! However, there are some things out there that need to be considered when reading this column--particularly from an employer's perspective. There are some employers out there who will hire ex-offenders because of the nature of their businesses, and their need for staffing. However, more and more employers do not want people with criminal convictions on their premises---and not just those who have just gotten out of prison, either.
Most employers operate on this main theoretical premise: you will do what you have done. It's pretty hard to get convicted in this town nowadays. Offenders often get two, three, four bites out of the apple, suspended sentences, probation, etc. But unless they change their ways, they are still they. The guy that served 11.5 years had to do some serious stuff to get there, and that was probably 75% of his sentence. And probably not the first time he did bad things, for sure. So, in essence, the punishment continues. People make choices.
After working closely with a fair number of ex-offenders, I have found the ones who have done long stretches in DOC really don't plan on going back if they can help it. Of course, I know the odds are against them. But at least the majority seem reasonably motivated to do some serious jobhunting. I try to coach them on where they should look, and where they should not look, because it is probably a waste of time. The guy looking for a housekeeping job at a hospital is not likely to find success. Healthcare institutions, those dealing with kids, hotels, and apartment complexes do not want people with convictions working for them--with certain exceptions. (If you're working in a kitchen in a hosptial, they probably are using an agency for staffing, and only rule out convicted felons.) So if the man in Rodrick's story was looking in any of these places, he has a very low probability of success.
The offenders who aren't just out of DOC are more hard-headed, though their records are usually not as bad. However, most employers run the other way when you've been convicted of assault. You really have to honestly sell yourself, and somehow prove that you've changed. Most of the folks I've worked with who have a lot of trouble finding jobs have one or more of the following "barriers to employment": dropped out of school in the 9th or 10th grade; never went back for a GED; no or little computer skills, history of run-ins with the boys in blue, often with "chump" convictions (Oh, I don't have any felony convictions--as if thast makes everything ok); often have a substance abuse issue, and won't stop smoking blunts or coke; no driver's license (or sometimes had one but suspended or revoked or expired); no good ID or social secuirty card; and finally, they often have a "street" attitude: look scary like they're ready to fight, look like thugs, long white shirts, wrinkled and dirty hanging down close to their knees, and can barely put a sentence together. Finally, looking for a job is a job in itself: a full-time job. Their followup is often poor to non-existent.
Many employers who need help tend not to hold minor or old convictions against folks if they're honest and halfway sell themselves. But those employers are limited to certain fields. Come on, would you want somebody working in your house who served over 11 years for burglary and obstruction of justice or assault? Or working around your loved one's hospital room or working in your hotel or apartment building? The sad truth is that the Division of Correction doesn't do much correcting--and everybody knows it.
Wood Curry, a therapist who runs the Baltimore Station, a therapeutic community for ex-addicts, sums it up well when he says that you have to teach the addict a new way of looking at and dealing with the world. In his building the entire first floor has floor to ceiling mirrors. When asked why, Woody said: "everywhere you look there's a problem." I thinks this applies to both addicts and ex-offenders: until they take a choice to straighten themselves out, they might possibly get a job, but usually they won't keep it very long.
Most employers don't weant to take the time to find out if the ex-offender is ready to make a change--not to mention the risk. Many employers have been sued by victims of their employees who they did not properly vet and committed a serious crime against a customer or fellow employee. Remember, people that operate in the criminal subculture live chaotic lives which are marked by deception and deceitfulness, and manipulation, and "getting over'. We all have a little of this in us, but keep it under control reasonably well so that we function ok in the workplace and actually help other people. But in order to survive in prison and the drug world, and on the streets, addicts and criminals function differently. It's all about what they want and what's theirs and "me".
Unfortunately, in Baltimore, and many other large cities, these folks did not choose their parents well: no one to tell them they loved them, or showed they cared about them, or taught them a sense of personal responsibility.
So, it's sad and expensive but most serious offenders and recent offenders are just going to have a hard time finding most kinds of jobs unless, in the workforce development vernacular, "they're ready".
Truly, you are doing God's work! However, there are some things out there that need to be considered when reading this column--particularly from an employer's perspective. There are some employers out there who will hire ex-offenders because of the nature of their businesses, and their need for staffing. However, more and more employers do not want people with criminal convictions on their premises---and not just those who have just gotten out of prison, either.
Most employers operate on this main theoretical premise: you will do what you have done. It's pretty hard to get convicted in this town nowadays. Offenders often get two, three, four bites out of the apple, suspended sentences, probation, etc. But unless they change their ways, they are still they. The guy that served 11.5 years had to do some serious stuff to get there, and that was probably 75% of his sentence. And probably not the first time he did bad things, for sure. So, in essence, the punishment continues. People make choices.
After working closely with a fair number of ex-offenders, I have found the ones who have done long stretches in DOC really don't plan on going back if they can help it. Of course, I know the odds are against them. But at least the majority seem reasonably motivated to do some serious jobhunting. I try to coach them on where they should look, and where they should not look, because it is probably a waste of time. The guy looking for a housekeeping job at a hospital is not likely to find success. Healthcare institutions, those dealing with kids, hotels, and apartment complexes do not want people with convictions working for them--with certain exceptions. (If you're working in a kitchen in a hosptial, they probably are using an agency for staffing, and only rule out convicted felons.) So if the man in Rodrick's story was looking in any of these places, he has a very low probability of success.
The offenders who aren't just out of DOC are more hard-headed, though their records are usually not as bad. However, most employers run the other way when you've been convicted of assault. You really have to honestly sell yourself, and somehow prove that you've changed. Most of the folks I've worked with who have a lot of trouble finding jobs have one or more of the following "barriers to employment": dropped out of school in the 9th or 10th grade; never went back for a GED; no or little computer skills, history of run-ins with the boys in blue, often with "chump" convictions (Oh, I don't have any felony convictions--as if thast makes everything ok); often have a substance abuse issue, and won't stop smoking blunts or coke; no driver's license (or sometimes had one but suspended or revoked or expired); no good ID or social secuirty card; and finally, they often have a "street" attitude: look scary like they're ready to fight, look like thugs, long white shirts, wrinkled and dirty hanging down close to their knees, and can barely put a sentence together. Finally, looking for a job is a job in itself: a full-time job. Their followup is often poor to non-existent.
Many employers who need help tend not to hold minor or old convictions against folks if they're honest and halfway sell themselves. But those employers are limited to certain fields. Come on, would you want somebody working in your house who served over 11 years for burglary and obstruction of justice or assault? Or working around your loved one's hospital room or working in your hotel or apartment building? The sad truth is that the Division of Correction doesn't do much correcting--and everybody knows it.
Wood Curry, a therapist who runs the Baltimore Station, a therapeutic community for ex-addicts, sums it up well when he says that you have to teach the addict a new way of looking at and dealing with the world. In his building the entire first floor has floor to ceiling mirrors. When asked why, Woody said: "everywhere you look there's a problem." I thinks this applies to both addicts and ex-offenders: until they take a choice to straighten themselves out, they might possibly get a job, but usually they won't keep it very long.
Most employers don't weant to take the time to find out if the ex-offender is ready to make a change--not to mention the risk. Many employers have been sued by victims of their employees who they did not properly vet and committed a serious crime against a customer or fellow employee. Remember, people that operate in the criminal subculture live chaotic lives which are marked by deception and deceitfulness, and manipulation, and "getting over'. We all have a little of this in us, but keep it under control reasonably well so that we function ok in the workplace and actually help other people. But in order to survive in prison and the drug world, and on the streets, addicts and criminals function differently. It's all about what they want and what's theirs and "me".
Unfortunately, in Baltimore, and many other large cities, these folks did not choose their parents well: no one to tell them they loved them, or showed they cared about them, or taught them a sense of personal responsibility.
So, it's sad and expensive but most serious offenders and recent offenders are just going to have a hard time finding most kinds of jobs unless, in the workforce development vernacular, "they're ready".
Sunday, January 27, 2008
burglaries at schools
For those of you upper middle-class people living in Baltimore who may not have heard: Bryn Mawr and Boys' Latin schools got broken into a couple of weeks ago.
Bryn Mawr was broken into overnight with a substantial loss reported by the Sun to be over $20,000; sources report it was higher.
Boys' Latin was broken into a night or two later, overnight, and cash was stolen as well as an unknown amount of property. The damage was reported to be so great that classes in the affected areas had to be relocated or cancelled for a day or two.
Buz sources indicated that these were both "professional jobs", using glass cutters, avoiding alarms which might alert the local gendarmes, and knowing exactly where the selected electronics (laptops, and projectors) were stored. Of course, this has all the earmarks of "inside information". The suspect poured sodas and other beverages over everything to try to make authorities believe that kids did it. Sources report that the police are focusing on the security company which both schools use. That's probably a good start, but investigators probably should not put all their eggs in that basket (though it's a good one). Even more important is which, if any, guards had worked at both schools (maybe many). There may be other contractors, such as construction types, cleanup crews, event staff, and even students attending athletic events, who could be on the lookout for way to get goodies for nothing. Or it could simply be good ol' fashioned burglars who did some good scouting. It doesn't really take a genius to figure out where alarms are or are not, but ya gotta know where the good stuff is. Somebody who looks, but pretends he's not looking. Somebody who no one thinks is bad. How about new faculty who worked at both schools?! But the usual suspects are the most likely: someone who legitimately was on the premises and got greedy, perhaps was in Baltimore's drug world or let slip, deliberately or otherwise, where the good stuff was and how to get to it.
Remember the Pepe's Murder!? A trusted employee told his junkie brother when the boss would be thee by himself to open up the place and how much money could be expected where. Just give brother a little cut. The owner was found stabbed to death, the body discovered by the employee who had been allowed to live upstairs and had worked there for years. When the cops asked if they could look in his place, he said sure. A lifted mattress found bloody money, a search warrant, and a trip to Towson. Both brothers got 30+ years.
Most organizations, including private schools, are too laissez faire about certain kinds of security--and this is discovered soon enough by some greedy dirt-ball, often someone within their own organization. Most organizations need a consult with a paranoid, suspicious, but sensible security person--like me.
These projectors and laptops are and have been the treasured piece for burglars for a while now. (Soon to be outdone by GPS devices.) Any school or business that has projectors or laptops: look out: they're eventually gonna come for you. Buz wonders where they sell all this stuff at. Betcha 2-1 that the police department doesn't know (of course, our licensed pawn shops wouldn't take in any stolen stuff would they?!) Nah, they're all 100% law-abiding. Except of course they may lie when the victim asks: did you take in any laptops recently. No, they said (my wife's was in the back room, legally reported to the police as required, but he wasn't going to tell US).
How bout bars: think they sell any of this stuff in the rest rooms of bars or out of trunks of cars. Betcha: 3-1 that so-called decent law-abiding people buy this stuff--like projectors and laptops and GPS things.
Buz heard that Bryn Mawr used to have a security guard on premises around the clock. He wonders if they dispensed with that because of the cost and relied instead on technology. Most people don't understand that tech has its place but is limited in what it can do. Notice the wave of residential burglaries in Pigtown--some of which had alarms. Technology is just a start, but has to be supplemented with the human element, policies, practices, procedures, hardware and defense in depth.
Who knows!? We hope the cops get these guys, and will be interested in finding out who if they do. In the meantime, business and school and nonprofit leaders: watch out! They're comin' for you or more specifically, your stuff. Trusted retired cops can help!
Bryn Mawr was broken into overnight with a substantial loss reported by the Sun to be over $20,000; sources report it was higher.
Boys' Latin was broken into a night or two later, overnight, and cash was stolen as well as an unknown amount of property. The damage was reported to be so great that classes in the affected areas had to be relocated or cancelled for a day or two.
Buz sources indicated that these were both "professional jobs", using glass cutters, avoiding alarms which might alert the local gendarmes, and knowing exactly where the selected electronics (laptops, and projectors) were stored. Of course, this has all the earmarks of "inside information". The suspect poured sodas and other beverages over everything to try to make authorities believe that kids did it. Sources report that the police are focusing on the security company which both schools use. That's probably a good start, but investigators probably should not put all their eggs in that basket (though it's a good one). Even more important is which, if any, guards had worked at both schools (maybe many). There may be other contractors, such as construction types, cleanup crews, event staff, and even students attending athletic events, who could be on the lookout for way to get goodies for nothing. Or it could simply be good ol' fashioned burglars who did some good scouting. It doesn't really take a genius to figure out where alarms are or are not, but ya gotta know where the good stuff is. Somebody who looks, but pretends he's not looking. Somebody who no one thinks is bad. How about new faculty who worked at both schools?! But the usual suspects are the most likely: someone who legitimately was on the premises and got greedy, perhaps was in Baltimore's drug world or let slip, deliberately or otherwise, where the good stuff was and how to get to it.
Remember the Pepe's Murder!? A trusted employee told his junkie brother when the boss would be thee by himself to open up the place and how much money could be expected where. Just give brother a little cut. The owner was found stabbed to death, the body discovered by the employee who had been allowed to live upstairs and had worked there for years. When the cops asked if they could look in his place, he said sure. A lifted mattress found bloody money, a search warrant, and a trip to Towson. Both brothers got 30+ years.
Most organizations, including private schools, are too laissez faire about certain kinds of security--and this is discovered soon enough by some greedy dirt-ball, often someone within their own organization. Most organizations need a consult with a paranoid, suspicious, but sensible security person--like me.
These projectors and laptops are and have been the treasured piece for burglars for a while now. (Soon to be outdone by GPS devices.) Any school or business that has projectors or laptops: look out: they're eventually gonna come for you. Buz wonders where they sell all this stuff at. Betcha 2-1 that the police department doesn't know (of course, our licensed pawn shops wouldn't take in any stolen stuff would they?!) Nah, they're all 100% law-abiding. Except of course they may lie when the victim asks: did you take in any laptops recently. No, they said (my wife's was in the back room, legally reported to the police as required, but he wasn't going to tell US).
How bout bars: think they sell any of this stuff in the rest rooms of bars or out of trunks of cars. Betcha: 3-1 that so-called decent law-abiding people buy this stuff--like projectors and laptops and GPS things.
Buz heard that Bryn Mawr used to have a security guard on premises around the clock. He wonders if they dispensed with that because of the cost and relied instead on technology. Most people don't understand that tech has its place but is limited in what it can do. Notice the wave of residential burglaries in Pigtown--some of which had alarms. Technology is just a start, but has to be supplemented with the human element, policies, practices, procedures, hardware and defense in depth.
Who knows!? We hope the cops get these guys, and will be interested in finding out who if they do. In the meantime, business and school and nonprofit leaders: watch out! They're comin' for you or more specifically, your stuff. Trusted retired cops can help!
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