Typical burglar?

[123]

My home may have been robbed, and I was unnerved by the experience, but Montreal remains a safe place to live. Here's some promotional blather from Ontario's provincial government comparing Canadian and US cities, collected data from a federal agency Statistics Canada and from a parenting magazine. For the benefit of non-Canadians, Toronto (~5M), Montreal (~3.6M), and Vancouver (~2M) are Canada's largest cities (population stated for the general area).

I don't know if there's any point in making comparisons to the US ... Canada's population is less than all of California. I guess if all 30 million Canadians were concentrated in the province of Ontario, we might become more irritable.

 

[drozwood90]

EHHHH?

<sorry I couldn't help myself!>

 

[Waynedb]

My home may have been robbed, and I was unnerved by the experience, but Montreal remains a safe place to live. Here's some promotional blather from Ontario's provincial government comparing Canadian and US cities, collected data from a federal agency Statistics Canada and from a parenting magazine. For the benefit of non-Canadians, Toronto (~5M), Montreal (~3.6M), and Vancouver (~2M) are Canada's largest cities (population stated for the general area).

I don't know if there's any point in making comparisons to the US ... Canada's population is less than all of California. I guess if all 30 million Canadians were concentrated in the province of Ontario, we might become more irritable.

Most rural areas of the U.S. are relatively crime free, the areas where most of the crimes are commited are the big cities. I live in a rural area on 2.5 acres about 10 miles from the Los Angeles county line. Recent increases in housing prices has forced many people to move farther away from the big cities, unfortunately lots of gang members came along with them.

 

[123]

EHHHH?
<sorry I couldn't help myself!>

Phast Phacts:

All 33 million Canadians, spread out across 5500 kilometers from Vancouver to Saint John's, always end every sentence with an "ayy". Curiously, some have been known to pronounce "about" like "ah-boot".

All 305 million Americans, spread out across 2800 miles from San Francisco to Washington, DC, always end every sentence with "y'all" and speak with a drawl. Curiously, some have been known to pronounce "park" like "pahk".

 

[deranged]

Let's not forget 'Dawg'

I come from Joisey myself...

StevenE

 

[jharrell]

Most of these stats are indeed questionable. The official FBI statistics that are quoted so often are still compiled from volunteered information. So there is no guarantee that what you read is accurate.

makes no sense and makes one question the stats doesnt it.

Sorry, I actually write law enforcement software for a living, the FBI stats don't come from volunteers, it's actually UCR, which in most states all computer systems that take police reports are required to generate stats that go first to your state level agency, then on to the FBI UCR program.

Now that's not to say there aren't problem in these systems, one is the stats come from computer programs written by private contractors(which my company is one) that have little oversight and if bugs it stat calculations occur they may not be caught for years, and if they are, it difficult to resubmit data later besides it looking bad. That's not say my software has any bugs, as we tend to worry about those things more, I have just seen it occur in other vendors systems .

Two many local agencies funding is based on improving stats through UCR, so there is a bit of "juking the stats" where they reclassify offenses to make the situation look better(or worse) within the wiggle room since crimes are normally not very black and white and can be classified multiple ways in a rigid system like UCR.

Three most agencies are required to submit stats but some have a computer system that can't or no computer system at all! This means they have personnel tally by hand to this day, and you know there is error in there.

Also there are other strange artifacts, such as UCR doesn't believe a male can be raped, that falls under assault among other things as this system was started in 1929.

Anyway, how about them cell jammers .

 

[aehusted]

jharrell
Thanks for the link. You did a much better job explaining the situation than I did.

Sorry, I actually write law enforcement software for a living, the FBI stats don't come from volunteers, it's actually UCR, which in most states all computer systems that take police reports are required to generate stats that go first to your state level agency, then on to the FBI UCR program.

 

[jharrell]

jharrell
Thanks for the link. You did a much better job explaining the situation than I did.

I didn't mean to sound dismissive of the "volunteered" issue either, the FBI does not have the authority to make it mandatory, but the states themselves do and most state have a UCR program and about half the states it's "mandatory", but even if it's not mandatory many times grant monies are tied to it, here are some slightly outdated stats on the level of participation: Stats Almost everyone is there don't get to sidetracked with the NIBRS stats either, NIBRS is just a more detailed more modern UCR that the FBI would like everyone to convert to, so even the states that show no UCR actually are just skipping right into NIBRS reporting. In the end the stats you see come from both systems.

 

[jrfuda]

Reading this topic last week got me thinking about the vulnerability of my own phone line. I started searching around for a pre-made solution and found the LineSafe at www.linesafe.net

It secures your phoneline interface box behind 2 doors and has a special 2-peice conduit that negates having to diconnect your phonline to put it together. The doors are lockable and have contact sensors that can be conncted to you security system as well. I contacted the manufacturer about return policies, becuase it looks like it will be a tight-fit for my system (ATT Uverse, with fiber right to my house and requireing power to run), and he said they have a 30-day return policy. The system is a bit pricey, but I think it is a good value considering its completeness and features.

My ATT Uverse system is particularly vulnerable becuase it currently has 3 access points. The fiber and ground line comes out of the ground, the power comes from a specially-made UPS inside my house and the phoneline and network enter the house at another point.

My plan is to move the box close enough to the point where the phone and network enter the house, so the linesafe will cover that point as well. I will then place the power supply line in seperate conduit, run it into the ground,and have it enter the LineSafe via the same conduit the fiber and groundline do. The power supply line is just some CAT5, so I will have to have it in conduit the entire burial line. I also plan to plant some holly bushes where all these panels are as well as both a deterent and to help make the area a bit prettier, as a bunch of gray boxes on a limestone wall is not very pretty.

It will be a week or two befire I will have a chance to complete the install, but when I do, I will report back with photos.