partners in crime -- prevention!

The next time you're joking about donut-eating cops, remember that these people have a lot more than pastry on their plates. They're responsible for investigating crimes, catching crooks, carrying out crash and fire investigations, patrolling the beat, enforcing traffic laws and helping motorists, looking for missing and lost children, answering domestic complaints, writing reports, interacting with other governmental and justice officials, testifying in court, attending public meetings and preventing loss. Yes, nearly all public safety agencies have loss-prevention programs in place, most of which welcome citizen participation. While it's true that public safety agencies also rely on criminal paranoia and some sort of rapid-response strategy to deter crime and prevent loss, for crime prevention to be truly effective, we need to get involved. Police can't be everywhere at once. That's why they rely on us to be their eyes and ears. When criminals fear they're being watched and their activity is being reported, they're more likely to move on.