Dead is too late

October 2013 Security Services & Risk Management

“If you have killed one person already, what difference does another twenty make?”

These are the words of a hardened criminal when asked during an interview why people are killed by offenders at the crime scene. Scary, shocking, but even more so when considering that this was his second reply when asked to elaborate on the question. His first answer was simply: “Because we can.”

A shocking statistic is that 30% of criminals have already committed murder and will do this again, as can be seen from the opening quote.

It is important to bear in mind that often these individuals are not thinking logically. They could be mentally imbalanced or unstable, or be fuelled solely by anger and hatred. Sometimes the misuse of drugs or alcohol affects their judgment which will make them less hesitant and braver when they commit these crimes. There have even been instances when the criminal is under the influence of witchdoctor’s medicines, which might lead him to believe in his delusion that he is, for example, invincible or invisible.

All of the reasons listed above will ultimately affect their thought processes or behaviour. Furthermore this makes these individuals highly unpredictable and therefore extremely dangerous.

Regular security methods will not deter these types of lawbreakers. It has occurred in a certain case where the criminal saw the CCTV camera and waved before attacking and killing his victim, while all the time this was being recorded.

As normal citizens when regarding ourselves we will not even entertain the idea that we will be capable of committing such a heinous crime against another. But unfortunately, we are not all cut from the same mould and desperation or delusion can cause people to act in extreme ways.

The only way to be in state to prevent these types of crimes from happening is to have the necessary knowledge and control of your security. If you are alerted to an intruder when they even just attempt to cross your perimeter, you will have more time to stop them. It’s too late if they are inside already.

An independent security risk assessment can provide you with the power and the means needed to prevent something like this from occurring and from you, your loved ones or your employees becoming another statistic.

The main goal of an assessment is actually to prevent the crime in the first place and to aid security awareness so that it can be discussed and that some sort of plan or reaction can be formulated in the worst case scenario should you find yourself in this type of position.

Prevention is better than cure, and if you’re dead … it’s definitely too late.

For more information contact Alwinco, +27 (0)71 319 4735, dianne@alwinco.co.za, www.alwinco.co.za





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