Safety Officer Shun Tillman came to our February meeting to give us an update on crime in our area. He reminded all businesses again of the importance of using 9-1-1 when an incident is occurring. When no one calls, there is no record of the problem, and emerging trends are much more difficult to head off.

He also let us know some more information about the scam artist that had been going door to door asking for money in the neighborhood over the month of January and February. You may have heard about that development on the e-democracy forum for our neighborhood (which you can see here: http://forums.e-democracy.org/groups/mpls-seward). Mark C. Bell typically says he’s a janitor at a church, and tells a story about needing some money because of car trouble. In order to prosecute this individual, we need to keep calling the police to share specific stories about what happened. He has been stopping at businesses as well, so keep your eyes open!

If you’d like to have Shun come to your business and do a free safety review, or to help you work with your employees to develop a safety plan, email info@sewardbusiness.org and we will connect you to him. He can provide very practical tips, such as whether you should install a security camera, and how to establish a “meet and greet” protocol for your employees, so no one can walk in and to your business and feel like no one is watching them. Those simple steps can help prevent theft or other crimes at your business.