Often when visiting with people in their home, I am asked if I know how safe their particular neighborhood really is. At Certified Security, I do get many phone calls from across our city and state from people who have suffered crime and are trying to secure themselves from future injury. Often, the calls come from areas that you would hardly imagine as “high crime” areas. So when in a home, I can only comment on what I have heard from homeowners who have called in.

We are seeing an increase of crime just about everywhere. And as a company dedicated to Life Safety, we feel a responsibility to alert the public when there is a threat. We never want to frighten anyone unduly. But if there is a lion in the street, we want to warn you not to go outside.

What crimes do threaten us today? The people who call us on a weekly basis are generally victims of crimes against people and property. We see many burglaries, robberies, vandalism, home invasions and thefts outside homes and businesses (such as AC Units). Sadly, there are many more crimes that we never hear about and are largely unreported.

To give you a more objective view of your particular neighborhood, you may want to contact the police and / or sheriff department in you city and county. Many law enforcement agencies are now putting up helpful websites that will let you know about crime in your city.

Flagler County has a daily crime blog that posts as public record the events of the previous day. You can check this out at: http://www.myfcso.us/daily_reports.html

Duval County goes about it differently by giving crime statistics for a particular neighborhood. They have software that uses your address to give you what has happened in the last six months. You can find this at the Jacksonville Sheriff Department website: http://maps2.coj.net/crimestatsdiscl.asp?sJAxGIS=Y 

For households where children are present, a threat assessment for a neighborhood is not complete without knowing the location of any registered sexual offenders in the area. In this way you will know what houses or apartments your children should avoid and you should keep an eye on. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement has a great website that will list all the offenders within ¼ mile to 5 miles from your address. That website can be found at: http://offender.fdle.state.fl.us/offender/searchNeighborhood.do?actionPerformed=neighborhoodSearchMain