By LINDA CHION KENNEY
Unlocked vehicles, faulty surveillance cameras, internet predators and cyber-security attacks were among the issues discussed at a chamber luncheon at The Regent in Riverview last week.
From streets to offices, the far-reaching losses and costs of crime were covered by a panel of four experts who encouraged attention to prevention to offset crimes against people and real and digital property.
“Spring break is next week,” said business owner Ted Martin, of 2nd Amendment Armory. “Your cars will be getting broken into if you don’t lock them. I know because it happened to me. You have to lock your cars every day.”
Vanity Barr-Little, a franchisee for Reliable Livescan, which specializes in digital fingerprinting for background screening
Angel Rojas, president and CEO of DataCorps Technology Solutions, stressed as well “getting back to the basics” in protecting our digital words, with the use of strong passwords and multifactor authentication, as well as for businesses to invest in cybersecurity risk assessment and insurance that “pays the moment you report a crime.”
“We take extra steps to secure our physical property,” Rojas said. “We lock our doors, and we arm our alarms. Yet when it comes to our digital property, we don’t seem to really care that much about it.”
Martin and Rojas were two of the four panel speakers at the March 7 luncheon, hosted by the Greater Brandon Chamber of Commerce. The “State of Business Safety” luncheon was sponsored by Vanity Barr-Little, owner of VANBAR Holdings, which includes Reliable LIVESCAN, a fingerprinting service. Her other holdings are CNA Training & Testing Center in Brandon, Sylvan Learning of Apollo Beach and Sylvan Learning of Riverview, which opened earlier this year.
Also on the panel, from the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, were Detective Annamaria DiLascio and Nikki Bosley, a major from District 5, which includes the Riverview area. They both stressed the importance of surveillance cameras.
It doesn’t help if the device isn’t working or the quality of the video is shady at best. “We run into that a lot,” Bosley said, and DiLascio concurred.
“A lot of times we find the manager or employee doesn’t know how to use the camera,” so training is warranted, DiLascio said. “The quicker we can obtain that video surveillance, the quicker we’re able to create alerts to send out to our community and other districts.”
Indeed, speed is of the essence, as Martin noted in his recounting of a crime at his business, 2nd Amendment Armory, more than a year ago, which he discovered after the fact during a trip to Ireland, when he checked his surveillance footage.
Arrested about a week later were three men in their 20s who reportedly took about three minutes to steal 32 firearms, Martin said. So far, “only 10 of those firearms have been recovered,” he added, “and we just now have trial dates for two of the three [accused men].”
“It’s a terrible feeling, but you have to understand criminals,” Martin said. “No matter how much security you put in, criminals find a way. They’re dedicated to doing what they do, and you have to take every precaution you can to try to prevent it.”
That led to Martin’s pitch for defensive training, which his company offers, and for ensuring security cameras around businesses and homes are in working order. With surveillance, “I caught the guys who broke into my car,” Martin said, “and they got prosecuted, too.”
As a detective in the Special Victims Unit (SVU), DiLascio investigates crimes involving sexual abuse and elder abuse. “A mandatory reporter might be a doctor, nurse, law enforcement officer or firefighter,” DiLascio told the luncheon audience, “but it can be one of you guys, somebody who sees something that doesn’t look right.”
From left, Hillsborough County Major Nikki Bosley, detective Annamaria DiLascio and business owners Angel Rojas and Ted Martin
DiLascio noted one such case, in which a report was made against a foster parent, because the reporter “realized something wasn’t right.” The child was taken out of the abusive home and the license to foster children was suspended.
Bosley said it is the “number one priority” of the sheriff’s office “to keep our communities safe,” and toward that end is a neighborhood-watch-like program for hotel and motel business owners, which could be expanded to other business types.
The aim is “to communicate with us and with each other” when something doesn’t seem right, Bosley said, noting that if someone of ill repute is staying at one hotel, they’re likely to stay at another hotel as well. “We want the criminals to know, you do not come [to Hillsborough County] to stay and commit your crimes.”
Further in the cause of crime prevention, Bosley noted District 5’s attention to the mall in Brandon, where “a couple different things happened over the past couple of years” that warranted a press to ensure greater surveillance. Toward that end, she added, two deputies are assigned to the mall every day, covering shifts from open to close.