Cop Corner with Kim Cole

Editor’s note: Welcome to Cop Corner in the Features section “Tips and Trades.”

Cop Corner is being written by Sgt. Kim Cole with the Mason County Sheriff’s Office. Sgt. Cole is running for sheriff this year and his campaign is sponsoring this page. If you are interested in sponsoring a specific section or feature please contact us about our rates.

In this column, Sgt. Cole will talk about keeping yourself safe.

This section is sponsored by the Committee to Elect Kim Cole Mason County Sheriff: www.kimcoleforsheriff.com.

Cop’s Corner

By Sgt. KIM COLE

I chose this topic after a friend of mine was fol­lowed recently as she left work here in Lud­ing­ton! Yes, it can hap­pen here!

Here are some tips from S.E. Jones at Yahoo! Voices:

• Don’t panic. Take deep breaths; calm your­self so you can think clearly. Focus on your sur­round­ings to see if there is a safe place to go.
• Don’t assume. They may not be fol­low­ing you, but don’t take any chances. Always assume the worst so that you will take the max­i­mum precautions.
• Look for the near­est place that has peo­ple. It’s bet­ter to be around other peo­ple if you think some­one is fol­low­ing you. There is safety in num­bers. If you know of a place other peo­ple gather, go there, right away. It doesn’t mat­ter if you know them or not, just get to where other peo­ple are.
• Run. If you are on foot and you think some­one is fol­low­ing you, start run­ning right away, don’t wait for them to get closer.
• Scream. Yell and scream as loud as you can, while run­ning. Don’t let the pos­si­bil­ity of embar­rass­ment at being wrong stop you from scream­ing. Yell for help so that oth­ers around you will know your situation.
• Use your cell phone. Call for help by dial­ing 911.
• Drive to a police sta­tion. If some­one is fol­low­ing you while dri­ving, try to get the vehi­cles reg­is­tra­tion num­ber and vehi­cle descrip­tion (include color of vehi­cle, type, make if you can tell and num­ber of doors-2 door or 4 door) while you drive to your near­est law enforce­ment agency.
• If you were head­ing home, don’t go there. As I men­tioned at the start this recently hap­pened to a friend of mine who hap­pened to be head­ing home. She didn’t. Instead she drove away from home and to a safe place while call­ing for assis­tance. The last thing you want is for the per­son fol­low­ing you to learn where you live so they can find you later.
• Do not stop. If you believe you are being fol­lowed don’t stop to check who they might be or to talk on your cell phone, or to cry or any­thing else. All these things can be done while walk­ing or run­ning. Just keep moving.
• Look for a place to hide and/or weapons. Look for places where you can hid (if on foot) or at least keep your­self safe. Also look for any­thing you could use as a weapon should it become nec­es­sary to pro­tect your­self. Con­sider any­thing made of metal, sharp or heavy you could throw.
• Don’t talk to them. If they call out your name don’t respond. They may be try­ing to slow you down or con­fuse you to get the advan­tage. Sim­ply ignore them and keep moving.

Tags: ludington, Mason County Press, mason county sheriff office, scottville