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How to Tell If People Are Casing Your Neighborhood

by Remy Lo

Overview

When you envision crime it is often associated with the inner-city and high population areas. While this can be a true depiction, crime itself has no boundaries. Preventing neighborhood crime can help keep you from experiencing losses in possessions, assets and your community sense of security. One step in prevention is detection, and learning how to tell when someone is casing your neighborhood can help prevent a burglary.

Step 1

Get to know your neighbors. Like members of a sports team often wear the same uniform for easy identification, you too should know the faces of your neighborhood. This may require introducing yourself and being proactive when you see passers-by. Knowing the occupants around you will be able to help you identify people you don't know.
Step 2

Notice what's going on around you. When someone is casing your neighborhood, they will often be watching for people who are on a strict schedule. If you're one of those people, it may be difficult for you to notice the schedules of others. Break your routine once in a while to find out what is going on in your general vicinity to see if anything is out of sorts.
Step 3

Look for suspicious signals. One thing to look for when you want to see if your neighborhood is being cased is for people loitering in areas for long periods of time. Lookouts will often wait in an area where they can't be noticed and where they can still see what is going on around them. Look for suspicious characters in vehicles and even taking walks. Remember that when people are walking for exercise, they will typically be moving at a high pace and have on exercise clothing.
Step 4

Be honest about your risks. Chances are that if you are already in an undesirable location that has higher crime rates, someone has already been casing your neighborhood. Opportune areas to be cased are areas that aren't well-lit and don't typically have lots of pedestrian activity. This is not limited to bad neighborhoods as often occupants of a "good" neighborhood become easy targets because of their complacence.

3
Keep up on trends in and around your neighborhood to recognize early warning signs that your neighborhood is being cased for a robbery. This can be achieved in neighborhood watch groups or by simply watching the news and reading the local crime reports.
Keep up on trends in and around your neighborhood to recognize early warning signs that your neighborhood is being cased for a robbery. This can be achieved in neighborhood watch groups or by simply watching the news and reading the local crime reports.
Ensure that you use preventative measures to lower your risk of victimization such as locking all of your doors and windows, using motion lights and changing up your routine. Guard dogs, alarms and neighborhood watch signs can also be great crime deterrents.
Ensure that you use preventative measures to lower your risk of victimization such as locking all of your doors and windows, using motion lights and changing up your routine. Guard dogs, alarms and neighborhood watch signs can also be great crime deterrents.