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Safer Leicester Partnership - working together for a safer city
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Safety Tips over the Festive period

Mobile Phone and Personal Safety

Keep you and your mobile phone safe at all times.

 

  • Try not to make non-urgent calls in crowded, busy places. Be particularly careful about using your phone at street crime hotspots such as bus or train stations.

 

 

  • Pre-programme the number of a reputable taxi firm into your phone. When travelling home after a Christmas party, order a taxi from inside the venue and ensure that it calls you when it arrives, so that you do not have to wait for it alone.

 

  • Use a licensed black cab or a reputable taxi firm. Do not take an unregistered minicab and do not accept a lift home from a stranger.

 

  • Try to make sure someone knows where you have gone and when to expect you home. If you don’t want to let anyone know where you are going to be, you can use Safetytext to alert people should you not return at a prearranged time. Safetytext is a service that allows you to programme your phone to send a text message with details of where you are in the event that you don’t return home when you planned to. For further details please visit www.safetytext.com.

 

  • Don’t leave your phone on tables in pubs or restaurants and whenever possible, keep your mobile out of sight in your pocket, jacket or bag and use a hands-free earpiece to help prevent opportunist thieves snatching it from your hand.

 

  • Register your phone with your operator, and make a note of your IMEI number (which can be found by keying in *#06#). If your phone is lost or stolen, both the SIM card and handset can be barred across all networks. Contact your service provider immediately.

 

  • Don’t use your phone while driving, but instead let your voicemail take any messages while on the road.

 

  • Always make sure your phone is charged before you go out so you can make a call; you might need it in an emergency. It is free to make a 999 call from a mobile phone.

 

 

Stay Safe this festive season

Reduce the risk of becoming a victim of burglary, by making sure you take some simple precautions:

 

  • Always lock your doors and windows, even when just popping to the shops.

 

  • Fit deadlocks to all outside doors - burglars hate them because you need a key to open them from the inside as well as the outside.

 

  • Put key operated locks on all downstairs or accessible windows - burglars don't like having to smash windows.

 

  • Never hang a spare key inside the letterbox, an obvious place that a thief will check. Consider fitting a letterbox cage, which prevents thieves from putting their hand through.

 

  • Try to make sure your TV and other valuables cannot be seen from your window. 

 

  • Do not tempt thieves by leaving presents on display. Do not leave empty boxes of new purchases outside.

 

  • Use a timer switch to turn lights and radios on when you are out or away to give the impression that your house is occupied.

 

  • Fit a burglar alarm and use it.

 

  • Use gravel and pebbles on driveways and paths to enable you to hear visitors approaching your house.

 

  • Be a good Neighbour – If you see anyone acting suspiciously call the police