UPDATE, Feb. 27, 2017 / Taking advantage of a little school break, three prize-winning students who wrote essays featuring tips on public safety and crime stopping were treated to lunch with Naperville Police Chief Bob Marshall and Crime Prevention Specialist Mary Browning. During lunch, the students continued to offer more sound advice, mostly reminding local residents to begin teaching their young children early about public safety. Get to know the community, they agreed. And keep cars and houses locked at all times.
Above / Students Viviana Didzbalis, Julia Kapur and Alan Chen were recognized with appreciation by NPD Chief Bob Marshall, Crime Preventional Specialist Mary Browning and Naperville Crime Stoppers Board President Nancy Quigley.
Original Post / To recognize Crime Prevention Month in October, the Naperville Police Department invited local students to submit short essays explaining how they would prevent crime. The top essays chosen from each age group are printed here as submitted, without edits.
The three winners will get to experience a special lunch with the Chief of Police and a private tour of the Naperville Police Department.
Enjoy the essays and remember: Crime prevention is everyone’s responsibility!
3rd – 4th Grades
First Place:
Viviana Didzbalis, 3rd grade, Scott Elementary School
What I would do to prevent crime. I would start with the basics like locking my doors and windows when I leave the house. I would also make sure to remind my mom to lock the car doors because thieves often look for easy targets. When leaving my bike in a public place, I would always make sure to lock it up. If when I would see a suspicious car driving around my neighborhood I would write down the license plate number, and then I would tell an adult.
Honorable mentions:
Akhshith Rengaraju, 4th grade, May Watts Elementary School
Zahra Moosani, 3rd grade, Kingsley Elementary School
Poorna Bhat, 3rd grade, White Eagle Elementary School
5th – 6th Grades
First Place:
Julia Kapur, 5th grade, Highlands Elementary School
Crime Alert! Crime Alert!
The police work hard to protect the people of Naperville and their homes. However, I want to help too, so I have created a plan to help support the Police. I hope to make Naperville safer for everyone!
My plan is to teach kids from an early age to know that crime is serious and unacceptable. I want to convince the Police to send a few officers to visit schools to teach the students that crime is wrong is extremely grave. During the visits, they would talk about crime and about what to do if during a crime and how to protect their home. At the end, they could pass out informational flyers for parents about different ways to guard their home, how to defend themselves during a crime, and to talk to their child about crime. I hope that this will prevent crime by teaching kids not to commit crimes at an early age so they remember throughout their adulthood not to, and instead seek help from others for their problems.
I hope this plan might help prevent crime and will be helpful. I hope to make Naperville a safe and secure place for everyone and help the Police!
Honorable mentions:
Athena Chen, 5th grade, Highlands Elementary School
Annie Zhang, 5th grade, Chesterbrook Academy
7th – 8th Grades
First Place:
Alan Chen, 7th grade, Madison Jr. High School
How I can prevent crime. The first thing I would do is getting to know my neighborhood and neighbors better. This will help fight crime or prevent crime because of the fact that you know your neighbors well and the neighborhood as a whole can work together, look after one another’s house and communicate well. Next the neighborhood should call a meeting and talk about concerns about safety and crime prevention to the local police representative. The representative would want to talk to the little group about their concerns and tell the group what crimes have been happening in the area.
After that I would find if anyone has CCTV or security cameras so that if there is a burglary, hit-and-run, thieves or other neighborhood crimes the police can track down and apprehend the criminal(s). Next a neighborhood watch would be good at keeping crime at bay and tell criminals that the neighborhood is serious about keeping out crime. Next the neighborhood should research recent crime trends and tell other people in the neighborhood what to look out for. If crime still goes on I would ask the community to pool together some money to get CCTV or security cameras. Finally I would promote the, If you see something say something crime prevention motto.
This is how I would help with crime prevention for the community and Naperville.
Honorable mentions:
Adhvaith Mhahesh, 6th grade, Francis Granger Middle School
Caroline Hughes, 8th grade, All Saints Catholic Academy
Every month PN promotes Naperville Crime Stoppers mission to teach the community to be proactive because “crime prevention is everyone’s responsibility.”
Become familiar with the Crime Stoppers phone number. If you see something suspicious, say something. Submit an anonymous tip via the hotline at (630) 420-6006.
This month PN is pleased to present essays written by local students during 2016 Naperville Public Safely Month in October.
Nancy Quigley, president of Naperville Crime Stoppers, added, “We’re so proud of the students for identifying so many measures through which our community – even children – can work together to keep Naperville safe.”
