Peoria Police Department Offers Tips to Business Owners to Avoid Robberies

By Tami Vigilante

The Peoria Police Department recently distributed pertinent information to business owners to help discourage crime at local businesses throughout the Phoenix metropolitan area. While the police department cannot prescribe a potion or cure-all to rid a business of robbers, there are ways to discourage them and to minimize the chances of violence through sound business practices and proper employee training. The tips below outline some basic robbery deterrents that can be practiced as a minimum line of defense.

• Stay alert! Know who is in your business and where they are.
• Also, be aware of suspicious activity outside your place of business.
• Don’t be afraid to call the police if you see something suspicious.
• Try to greet customers as they enter your business. Your attention can discourage a robber.
• Never block the view into your business by crowding windows with signs or merchandise.
• Use low display counters and cases to maintain visibility from both inside and outside the business.
• Keep all entrances, exits, and parking areas well lighted.
• Keep cash in registers to a minimum. Place large bills and excess money in a safe as soon as possible.
• Make frequent cash drops.
• Keep your safe locked at all times.
• Use two or more persons to open and/or close the business. There is better safety in numbers.

For additional crime prevention tips or to become a certified crime shield property, go to peoriaaz.gov/crimeshield.

Video Can Help Tempe Police Nab Beating Suspect


By Tami Vigilante

A male suspect who thought he got away with a crime after beating a defenseless 20-year-old male Arizona State University student in the elevator of a popular residential building in downtown Tempe now must try to evade local law enforcement agencies.

Because West 6th Tempe has video surveillance cameras monitor various areas of their high-rise residential building located just west of Mill Ave. near ASU, Tempe Police now have video footage that clearly identifies a 6-foot white male with short brown hair in his early 20s relentlessly attacking the male victim in an elevator on the property around 2 a.m. on Oct. 6. The victim was knocked unconscious and had an earring ripped out of his ear by the suspect. Tempe Police are seeking the suspect on aggravated assault charges because there is such severe damage to the victim’s face after sustaining numerous facial fractures. Tempe Police have released video footage of the crime to local media agencies to assist them in asking people to help them identify the suspect through their Silent Witness program.

If there had not been any video footage, the Tempe Police Department would have had a hard time trying to solve this crime because it happened early in the morning when nobody else seemed to be around the building to offer information as a witness. That is why Centralized Vision has been so beneficial to our customers by providing real-time video verification services to our clients. We have various properties who use our services to monitor their cameras within the elevators in their parking structures. Not only can we act as a deterrent by catching thieves in the middle of a crime, but we can also capture footage of a serious crime and work with law enforcement authorities to track down the suspects.

Hopefully, you will agree with me that we can make our community safer as more businesses and property management companies use video monitoring to prevent crimes like this from happening in the future.

Tami Vigilante is Executive Vice President & Co-Founder at Centralized Vision. For more information on real-time video verification services or GPS monitoring, go to centralizedvision.com or call 855-888-8094.

[iframe src=”http://centralizedvision.com/vid1.html”]