The Holiday decorations were put up at the front gate Saturday, Nov 30 within a few days I received a call asking what had happened to our decorations. I can only assume they were stolen which does not surprise me. I observed a woman driving a yellow cab digging up flowers from our flower bed at the front gate. When I confronted her she commented it was her mothers birthday and she was getting them for her. I ask her to put them back but she refused. I did report her to the cab company but they did nothing. Should we invest in new decorations considering our surroundings? Any suggestions on how to make them more difficult to steal. Certainly better landscape lighting and video surveillence would provide a deterrent.

video surveillance

I think your idea about video surveillance is an excellent one that at least merits some research. I would have to believe that a visible surveillance system, albeit not an absolute theft prevention system by any means, would be a pretty good deterrent. It may be quite expensive but I think it should be looked at.

I would like to see the decorations replaced. With respect to the cab driver, why not report her to the police? And the cab cab company as well?

Video Surveillance

Surveillance implies that someone is actually watching. That's what makes it a deterrent. If I do something bad, the person watching me in that camera will come confront me. Who in our community is going to be watching the gate camera?

Perhaps it would be a little helpful after-the-fact, if we wanted to confront the cab company for example. I still don't know how useful even that would be.

For the price, and considering the technical and logistical issues, I think video surveillance would be a waste of money. For the same amount of money we could probably replace the missing flowers a hundred times over.

As for our homes, the way we decorate them says more about our neighborhood than anything we put on the gate. I like decorations but not enough to give them away for free by attaching them to the front gate of our community. If stealing them is a continual problem then lets don't do it anymore. I spend maybe 30 seconds a day looking at the front gate of our community. Maybe decorations are not worth the aggravation.

Wow! Bah Humbug!

-Layne



By Layne Smith

surveillance system

Ever heard of cameras that record activities that may later be reviewed if there is an incident that needs to be investigated? Ever heard of dummy cameras? There is a reason why many businesses utiltize the above two systems. They do so presumably because they are believed by some to actually have some deterrent value. Are they perfect? Hardly. I'm sure many of those same businesses suffer crime --- some of which is even recorded on those same surveillance systems. But then again, few security systems are completely impenetrable. Surely you are not so naive as to believe that the locks on your house are foolproof either. Presumably you still use them? Why? Probably because you, like most of us, think they just might deter thieves. By the way, we also have a security code that must be entered to obtain access to our community. Remember? Is that a complete deterrent? Is it foolproof? Hardly. But if you took the time, trouble and effort to go back and read your posts of July 5 & 6, you would see that you were bemoaning the fact that someone was freely publishing the access code even though you conceded in those same posts that our security system was not perfect. Instead, you argued that the code access system served as one more obstacle to criminals. I agreed with you. I suspect that the same just might be true of a surveillance system.

Linda pointed to a broader issue than Xmas decoration that could be replaced''100 times over.'' I don't hold myself out as an expert on what is involved in implementing a surveillance system. However, rather than simply accepting your conclusory and unsubstantiated claims regarding ''costs'' and ''logistics'', I would like our Board to actually explore the issues thoroughly and intelligently. If, after actually investigating the issues, an improved security system is deemed to be prohibitively expensive or otherwise unworkable by our community, then so be it.

Michael